Secret Survivor
by The.Akatsukis.Fallen.Angel
Summary: Sasuke wasn't the only one Itachi let live. A jutsu sealing her memories,a new village.she would be safe and brought up right. How did her life go so wrong as to end up in the Akatsuki. DeidaraxOC, SasukexOC. Lemon on chp 22. M for language and such
1. Initiation

_Okayy faithful readers. this probably isnt my best story. i had a random thought and started jotting it down and it became this. i dont know how far i'll take this story, if i find myself getting into it ill continue. right now ive got this and half of a second chapter as a "trial" to see where i wanna go. so rate, review, tell em what you think. critizism welcome._

_(The centered italiseized part is a flashback)_

**X~X**_  
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Itachi watched in horror as she walked into the Akatsuki base. This girl, why was she here? What could have possibly have led her to this place? His eyes took in the Konoha headband on her forehead. A long deep slash through the symbol of the Hidden Leaf. He stood holding his breath as she moved past him. Her sharingan eyes showing no spark of recognition as they passed over his face. This girl, the one person that Konoha and Sasuke were never to know about. The secret survivor of the Uchiha Massacre.

_Bodies piled on the floor, a tear leaked from Itachi's eye. Hating himself more and more with every slash of his blade. Then he saw her. She was easily recognized, her knew her from around the village, she was Sasuke's classmate at the academy, Arnya Uchiha. Her deep gray eyes stared at him in confusion and fear. Tears leaked down her face as she took in the terror unfolding around her. She looked from the bodies of her parents to that of her younger sister. It was at the sight of the child that Arnya finally broke. She fell to the ground calling her sisters name. Itachi approached her, Anbu sword at the ready. Then she said something that made him freeze. _

"_I'm sorry," she choked through her tears, "I couldn't protect you like I promised." Itachi stopped, his blade fell to his side as he stared at this child. He was reminded of himself, he imagined what he would do in this situation, if it was him on the ground looking at Sasuke's body. He kneeled down beside the child. She turned to face him, "why?" was the simple question. _

"_you wouldn't understand," was the reply before he knocked the girl in the back of the head, rendering her unconscious._

"I don't remember any of my life before I was nine-years-old," Pain the Akatsuki leader was questioning her collecting information on the newest member, "I don't know where I am from, who my parents were, what my last name was, or how I ended up in the village I then grew up in."

"what do you know?" Pain asked, a little harshly in Itachi's opinion.

"My name is Arnya, I was raised in a miniscule spit of a non-shinobi village, I don't have a family, as far as I can remember I have been completely alone, I don't trust anyone or anything, this necklace I wear is the one thing that suggests I even had a life before I woke up in the hospital. I left that pathetic excuse for a village when I was twelve, became a Konoha chunin when I was fourteen, had a falling out with the people I believed to be my friends when I was fifteen and left the village. I've been rouge since then and now im standing here." she said, sarcasm and anger dripping off almost every syllable,

"oh one more thing, the only possible thing that suggest the identity of my bloodline is my Sharingan. But even then I can't say for sure because the only living one I've met before this moment I never bothered questioning because I can't stand the brat's guts."

Pain didn't seem sure how to respond. The rest of the Akatsuki members were standing staring at this woman in silence. It was Deidara that posed the next question, "Why do you hate him, yeah?"

Arnya turned towards the nineteen-year-old blonde, her dark eyes focused onto his blue ones. "because he's an arrogant, over-achieving, self-centered, oh-woe-is-me my brother hates me, vengeance obsessed BITCH!"

Deidara seemed satisfied with this answer and nodded his understanding, subconsciously shooting Itachi a dirty look.

Itachi swallowed the lump in his throat. The way this woman talked about Sasuke. Was he really so cold now. He knew Sasuke would never again be the happy, loving and hyperactive child he once was, but to be described in such a way. Of course the attitudes of both the young Uchiha survivors could be boiled down to and blamed on one thing. Itachi. Both children had seen their parents destroyed in front of them, both children felt the horrible pain of loss and fear. The difference, Sasuke was manipulated to hate Itachi, and go after his brother rather than the true cause of the massacre. While Arnya's memories were forcibly sealed by a jutsu Itachi had placed on her.

"Alright Arnya," Pain obviously trying to redirect everyone's attention to the initiation of a new member, "we sought you out because of your power, and you came without argument. Why did you agree to join us?"

"I've got nothing better to do." was the dark eyed woman's emotionless reply.

"that was pretty much my answer too, yeah" Deidara commented. He seemed to have taken a shine to her. Deidara after all made it no secret that he despised Itachi, and by extension any Uchiha bearing the sharingan. Hearing Arnya insult Itachi's own flesh and blood must have made him quite happy. And seeing as he was ignorant of her true line he had no reason to dislike her.

"Well, then, Sasori, Deidara. She will be working with the two of you for now. Until I think of something better for her." Pain concluded giving Arnya a quick up and down glance. Sizing her up no doubt. She definably didn't look like much. Standing at about the height of Itachi's shoulder, her slim body was covered mostly by black leather and body mesh. Her pitch black hair fell down her back in messy waves and ringlets, and at only eighteen-years-old she was currently the youngest member of the Akatsuki, and besides Konan, who like Pain was rarely seen in person by the other members, she was the only female.

The most dangerous looking thing about her appearance was her eyes. Even without sharingan she had a look, of hatred, anger, and bloodlust hidden behind her gaze. Everyone in the room, except Deidara, seemed tense around her. She gave off an aura more reproachful than any of the men surrounding her. However even in their tensed state, you could sense the hormones rolling off almost every one of the other members, Konan, Pain, and Itachi being the most obvious exceptions. But her beauty was a dangerous kind, like that of a black widow spider. Alluring but terrifying.

"Well look at that, Sasori no Danna. we get a new plaything." Deidara said elbowing Sasori who was currently sitting inside his Hiruko puppet.

Before Sasori had the chance to respond, Deidara was thrown forcibly across the room and crashed through the brick wall to the outside. Every face turned to Arnya who lowered her leg from her kick. "I," she said staring daggers at Deidara who was struggling to pick himself out of the rubble, "am NOT your plaything." and with that she stormed down a dark corridor towards her already pre-assigned bedroom.


	2. New Mission

"A little temper mental isn't she?" Kisame commented as they watched Arnya's retreating back.

"That's putting it mildly, yeah." Deidara said as he rejoined the group, brushing drywall dust off his cloak.

"Are you still happy to work with her Deidara?" Sasori's voice sounded deep and drawn out through Hiruko.

"Well she certainly is a bang, un."

"You know your next mission," Pain once again interrupted the conversation, "infiltrate Suna and bring back Shukaku." with that Konan and Pain disappeared in a puff of thick smoke.

"Well good luck with the new psycho bitch." Hidan said smiling evilly at Deidara and Sasori. He and his partner Kakuzu were the next to leave.

Zetsu said nothing and disappeared into the wall. Leaving Itachi, Kisame, Deidara and Sasori standing in the half wrecked room.

"You're from Konoha Itachi, yeah. Got any Intel on that chick?" Deidara asked turning to face the Uchiha.

"No, you heard her, she wasn't there when I left." Itachi looked down the corridor Arnya had just vanished into.

_Itachi lifted her small unconscious form and hid her in a building by the Konoha entrance gate. He would do what needed to be done with Sasuke, return here and dump her in the little non-shinobi village near here. He quickly did a number of complicated hand signs and pressed his open palms against her chest. He watch as the seal spread over her white top and sink into her. This jutsu would seal all her memories. She'd have no recollection of this blood stained night. Or of ever being a part of the Uchiha clan. Erasing every hint of her true bloodline. _

"Well Danna, lets go brief our new team-mate, yeah."

"I wouldn't suggest you call her a plaything again." Kisame said with a smirk.

Deidara sighed, "it was meant as joke yeah. More towards Sasori's puppets than to her."

"Making fun of my puppets Deidara," Sasori had taken on a dangerous tone. The metal scorpion tail emerged from underneath his Akatsuki cloak. The poison coated tip hovering inches from Deidara's nose.

"Well… I'm not the only temper mental one." Arnya was leaning against a wall watching the men.

"Well he isn't actually going to stab me. You however kicked me through a wall, yeah."

"I'm not someone who apologizes. And I don't actually care what you call me as long as it's not that."

"are you going to explain why?" Itachi said. His curiosity about the girl grew with each moment he watched her. What was it his actions that drove her to become like this, there was no way she remembered that night. He'd have felt the jutsu break. Just like he had felt it slip a bit the day she had activated her Sharingan.

"No." her charcoal eyes met his sharingan, Itachi saw nothing but hatred and anger behind them.

"Anyway, you should know I'm a highly impatient person so… what's the mission? when do we leave? is there a strategy?" her attention turned back towards her team-mates.

"the mission is capturing the one-tail jinchuuriki host, we leave as soon as we're all ready, and so far no plan has been discussed." Sasori answered, gruffly. 'Well' he thought, 'I'll never have to worry about her keeping me waiting.'

"One-tail? You mean the Shukaku of the sand?" it was at this that something actually sparked in her expression.

"You've come across it before un?"

"Sabaku No Gaara, the beast's human container, I met during my time in Konoha." she answered simply, "he participated in the chunin exams with me when I was fourteen. And I've seen Shukaku's true form once."

"The full Shukaku form?" Sasori scoffed not really believing it.

"Yeah. When the sand village shinobi teamed up with Orochimaru to try and bring down Konoha, Gaara was their ultimate weapon. He was to transform and destroy the village. Her however had an even shorter fuse than I do, and started to transform during his designated battle with the Uchiha brat." she relayed her story not giving any hint of emotion.

Itachi wasn't exactly surprised at her lack of feeling. "She is an Uchiha. We're not know for being excitable." he thought.

She continued, "Of course Sasuke's a bloody idiot so he went after him. By himself. Myself and three other genin were sent to stop him. We caught up in time to see Gaara half transformed and kicking Sasuke's ass. The other girl we were with got her self trapped in Gaara's sand after trying to defend Sasuke. I got myself a couple of broken ribs and a fractured leg when I tried to help Naruto and got tail whipped through a few trees, the only good part about that was being thrown into Sasuke while he was trying to get up. At least he makes a good airbag. Naruto ended up taking him down after he Gaara had gone into full possession and realized Shukaku's full form."

"I knew about that," Kisame said, "that was when Orochimaru killed the Third Hokage."

"That's right, as much as I don't particularly care for the people there anymore. I have to give the old man credit. He went down fighting and almost took the snaky freak with him."

"So you know Gaara yeah, this could help us out, what can you tell us about him." Deidara asked

"Well as far as recognizing him, he's tall, red hair, heavily rimmed eyes, and most distinctively he has the Kanji for love imprinted above his left eye. And he always carried a large gourd with him. Strapped to his back." She thought about it for a moment, "as far as his abilities go, he can do pretty much any range except hand to hand combat. He manipulates the sand. If you get caught in his sand coffin your fucked. The sand will constrict around you, and he can either suffocate you by blocking your nose and mouth or use his Sand Burial and simply crush you like an ant. It's also next to impossible to actually injure him. The sand he carries in the gourd is infused with his chakra and protects him. Independent of his will, it simply jumps to his defence. So sneak attacks don't work either. And if things get bad he uses his ultimate defence. I've only seen him use it once. During his exam battle with Sasuke. The sand makes a sort of protective dome around him. It's impenetrable, and if by some stroke of luck, or" and she looked Deidara up and down sceptically, "by some unlikely talent you manage to hit him, he uses the sand as a sort of armour over his body. But it has serious downfalls. It uses up most of his chakra which slows his attacks."

"This could help, well we should be on our way. We don't want to keep Pain waiting." with that Sasori started shuffling off towards the exit.

"Come on, if we don't go now, he'll bitch about us taking to long the entire way there." Deidara said, leading her to the door.

As Arnya walked she pulled the Akatsuki cloak she had been holding in her arms around her. Deidara noticed it was tighter than any of the guys. It squeezed around her showing her curves. Deidara smirked to himself as he looked at her. She was definably a bit crazy, and not someone he particularly felt like crossing a second time. But at least she was something good to look at in this male driven organization.

Itachi watched as she walked away. Holding in a sigh, he thought about what he had done to this girl. The village he'd left her in seemed nice enough at the time. Something obviously went wrong to make her like this. She was not any where near the way she had been as a child.

_Sasuke was running around in the courtyard, five-years-old chasing a butterfly. Itachi smiled watching his little brother laughing as his little hands grasped at the air. A little black haired girl walked over and smiled at Sasuke, she had handfuls of cardboard shuriken and kunai. _

"_I'm going into the village to play ninja with some of my friends. Do you want to come play Sasuke?" she smiled sweetly at the younger child whose eyes lit up at the idea of going to play with the village kids. _

"_I have to go ask if I can leave, my big brother may have to come with us."_

"_That's okay. Go on and ask."_

"_Mother," Sasuke ran past Itachi into the house, "mother, can I go play ninja with Arnya?"_

"_Be home before the sun goes down, and see if Itachi wants to go with you."_

"_Thanks mom, Big Brother!" Sasuke ran towards Itachi with hopeful eyes, "will come into the village so I can play with the other kids?"_

_Itachi smiled down at his brother then looked up at Arnya who was still standing in the courtyard waiting for Sasuke. "Sure. why not."_

_The trio entered the village and made their way to the park. On the way Arnya's attention was caught by a little boy sitting alone on a bench. The small blonde child was staring at his shoes and he seemed to be crying. "hold on a second please." Arnya said and she approached the boy, "what's wrong kiddo?" _

_The boy seemed to be about Sasuke's age. Itachi recognized him instantly. This was the kid the Kyuubi was sealed in._

"_N-nothing," the boy sniffled looking up at Arnya. Who smiled kindly_

"_well if nothing's wrong and you're not doing anything right now do you want to come play Ninja with Sasuke and I?"_

"_really?" the boy looked surprised at someone being nice to him, "you really want to play with me."_

"_I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to silly, come on." she grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him towards where Sasuke and Itachi were standing., "I'm Arnya Uchiha by the way, this is my friend Sasuke, and his big brother Itachi."_

"_I'm Naruto Uzumaki." the boy said proudly. _

"_Well Naruto Uzumaki, you any good at playing ninja?"_

"_I'm really good. I have to be. I'm gonna be Hokage someday."_

"Hey Itachi, Earth to Uchiha!" Kisame was waving his hand in front of Itachi's face.

"What."

"Since when do you space out like that?" Kisame said smirking at his partner, "I was just curious about our new girl, only the Uchiha's and Kakashi Hatake have the sharingan. Do you think you missed one?"

"not possible." Itachi replied irritably before turning down the hallway towards his bedroom.

"touchy aren't we. I was just kidding."


	3. Targetting the Shukaku

The desert was desolate and Arnya was beginning to over heat in her Akatsuki cloak. She glanced at the other two, neither seemed to be as uncomfortable as she was. She brushed her bangs behind her ears and pulled a hair tie off her wrist. She twisted her long curls into a messy pony tail at the back of her head.

"Are you sure what you've got in that pouch will be enough Deidara?" Sasori was saying, "our target posses the Shukaku we can't be reckless."

"Everyone of my creations is a work of art yeah." Deidara said brushing aside his cloak and reaching into a pouch in his belt, "but just in case I've brought along my masterpiece."

"Masterpiece?" Arnya asked glancing curiously at Deidara.

"Just you wait Arnya, you'll get to witness the purest form of artwork yeah."

"Whatever." Arnya said rolling her eyes. Is everyone is this organization this fucking weird. Sasori with impatience to rival her own, Kisame with that annoying smirk of his. The weird plant thing that had been looking at her like she was his next meal, The silver haired weirdo trying to convert her to Jashinism or something. The far too silent and passive looking woman who had been standing behind the pierced orange haired leader. And the Uchiha, who remained almost completely silent and just stared at Arnya like she was something from his nightmares. "Well if he annoys me too much I can become just that." she thought bitterly.

As she brooded over the freak show she had gotten herself into the roadway to Suna appeared in front of them. A rather shell shocked looking man covered with blood was standing before them.

"Yura," Sasori said regarding the Sand shinobi, "I assume you remember me."

"How could I forget, Sasori-sama." Yura replied looking down at Sasori.

Sasori-sama huh? This must be the guy they were talking about earlier.

The group walked down the road way toward the village. As they passed Arnya glanced down at the bodies littering the ground, "Some of these guys were Anbu, how did one man take them all out?" she thought looking up a Yura. He definably didn't look like someone capable of taking down an entire black ops squad.

"You two just leave this to me, yeah. And hang tight Arnya, you're about to see an art show." with that Deidara threw something out of his hand. In a puff of gray smoke it transformed into a large bird Deidara jumped onto it's back.

"Just don't keep me waiting too long Deidara." Sasori commented. Impatient was a mild way of describing this strange masked man.

Arnya went to say something when, Deidara took off soaring over Suna, as Arnya and Sasori stood watching, "Seems a little conspicuous, doesn't it?" Arnya asked, watching the large white bird.

"Deidara is anything but subtle." Sasori reply gruffly.

"Well, he's screwed himself over. Gaara will notice him. Any good Kazekage would."

"What?"

"There are no bird like that around here. Had he waited a half a second I could have told him that. But he's obviously a moron so…"

"Well. You've got the moron part right." Sasori said sounding somewhat amused, "We should get to setting the traps."

"Right." Arnya said pulling paper bombs out of the kunai pouch on her hip.

Once the bombs were set Arnya and Sasori resolved to watching Deidara. In the amount of time it took them to set a few traps Deidara had managed the gain the attention of the entire village. The blonde Akatsuki member was soaring around on his bird while Gaara, suspended in the air by his sand, fought him.

"Damn Deidara, had to make a circus out of it." Sasori's amusement was gone as he stared up at the airborne battle.

Gaara had already turned to his ultimate defence when Arnya noticed Deidara drop something towards the village.

Sasori sighed, "He's resorted to that. We'd better take a step back Arnya or we'll be thrown out of here by the force."

"What do you mean? Arnya asked as she and Sasori made their way down the roadway outside the village.

"You'll see."

She didn't have to wait long for her answer. She turned back and watched as the giant clay creation exploded, massive flames leaping into the sky, the shockwave whipping her hair around her face.

"Wow," Arnya said, impressed by the explosion, "that was interesting."

"Whatever you do," Sasori said, "don't tell him you liked that. He'd never shut up."

"That egotistic eh?" Arnya commented looking back expecting to see Suna in ruins. However it seemed Gaara had used the sand to protect the village, "what a dedicated Kazekage, back when I knew him he would have just them all burn."

"You don't get to be Kazekage by being that heartless. Maybe the boy's grown up in the years since you were around."

"It seems so. I guess Naruto really did knock some goodness into him." Arnya continued to watch Deidara flying around the giant ball of sand Gaara was currently contained in when suddenly the san orb changed shape, bits of it sticking in random directions. The image was almost comical like something out of a cartoon. The sand began to fall away from Gaara who was held in mid air by the sand clinging to his body.

"He survived that explosion?" Sasori said looking up at the red-headed figure.

"Must have been his sand armour, and by now he's out of chakra. Deidara's got him."

The sand hovering over the village began to shift, Arnya noticed it was moving towards the walls around the village. Gaara was using the last of his strength to protect his village. "wow," she thought, "definably not the same Gaara that whipped me through a forest."

After the sand was safely out of the village, Gaara began to fall head first towards the ground. Deidara swooped over and caught him in the giant clay owl's tail before soaring back towards where Sasori and Arnya were waiting.

"You took too long Deidara." was Sasori's first comment.

"Well we've got the jinchuuriki yeah. Did you finish your part? Deidara asked.

"Of course," Sasori said, "unlike you I know what I'm doing."

Deidara simply rolled his eyes and turned to Arnya as he jumped off his bird. "So what did you think of my art yeah?"

"It was interesting." Arnya said with a shrug.

"Well I supposed interesting it better than bad, yeah."

"I have a feeling that if I'd said bad, I'd be turned into one of your art projects." Arnya said, "Even I'd have a difficult time avoiding an explosion of that magnitude."

"Well at least she knows what modesty is." Sasori thought glancing towards the girl.

"That's not necessarily true," Blatantly ignoring Sasori's statement, "Just because I don't agree with someone's artist design doesn't mean I cant respect it." Deidara said walking between her and Sasori.

"Well I'm not really an artist," Arnya said simply, "I use fire style, and close range combat, so unless you count giant fire balls, and physical beatings artistic."

Deidara went to make a comment when there was a loud bang behind them, "Sounds like someone fell for your trap Sasori Danna."

Arnya didn't hear Sasori's next comment, she was wondering who it was that just got blown up. Kankorou or Temari were the most likely candidates. Arnya couldn't see either of them just standing by while their younger brother, and Kazekage of the sand got dragged off.

The trio and their prisoner continued to trek through the desert in silence. Sasori taking care to lay false trails to throw off any possible pursuers. Arnya was the first to sense someone close by. "We have a guest."

The three Akatsuki members turned around to see a tall man, wearing a black full body suit, complete with kitty ear hat, which his Suna forehead protector was attached to. Purple war paint covered most of his face, and he carried three large summoning scrolls on his back.

"I've finally caught up to you." he said, "give Gaara back now!"

Sasori was about to say something when Arnya step out of the clay owl's shadow, "Kankorou, you haven't changed a bit since we met have you?"

At the sight of Arnya, Kankorou's jaw dropped. "Arnya?" he said obviously confused and surprised to find her here, "of all the places you could have ended up you fell so low as to join the Akatsuki."

"are you really that surprised?" Arnya sounded amused, she smirked at the shock and disappointment in Kankorou's eyes.

"I thought you were better than this."

"And when the hell did I ever give you that impression?"


	4. Nightmares Of Blood

"I thought you were better than this."

"And when the hell did I ever give you that impression?"

Kankorou stared at Arnya with hurt eyes. There was no way this was the sweet young genin he had met almost four years ago in Konoha. Her eyes were different. The kindness, understanding, and the well hidden undertones of pain and loneliness were gone. To be replaced by a look that made him sick to his stomach. This look reminded Kankorou eerily of how Gaara's eyes used to be. Cold, angry, and blood thirsty. How could this be her, the lovely young teenager he had once known was no more. In her place was a dark, murderous woman.

_The dark haired girl took her place next to Kankorou. She looked a little nervous, as her eyes darted around the exam hall searching for her team-mates. "You look scared." Kankorou commented lightly. _

"_Written exams are not my strong suit, or my one friend's. I'm more worried about her than I am myself actually," she dropped her voice, "If worse comes to worse I can copy someone's pen movements with my Sharingan, but she doesn't really have that to fall back on." _

"_Sharingan eh?" He was interested, "I thought that kid there was the last one of the Uchiha's" he motioned to a spiky haired boy sitting a little bit ahead of them. The Uchiha crest standing out on the back of his dark blue shirt. _

"_He is." Arnya said simply. Obviously a little reluctant to reveal too much about her self to this stranger, "I have amnesia you see, my life before I was nine-years-old is a big blank."_

"_Oh so you don't even know if you may be."_

"_Yeah, but I doubt it. Why would I be left alive? What's so special about me?" _

The short stocky one of the trio was talking, Kankorou glanced over and saw that Arnya and the tall blonde that had fought Gaara had jumped up onto the giant clay owl. Kankorou pulled out the three scrolls on his back and summoned what Arnya knew to be his pride and joy. Three well made wooden puppets emerged from the jutsu of the scrolls. Crow and Black Ant, Arnya recognized the third was a more recent addition.

"I'll say it again," Kankorou announced leaving his sadness over Arnya's fate behind, "give Gaara back."

"Go Deidara, I'll handle this brat." said the short guy.

"Puppet master Jutsu yeah?" Deidara said smirking at Kankorou, "you're out of luck boy, Sasori no Danna is the one guy I wouldn't want to go up against." with that the bird flew off with Arnya and Deidara on its back.

Arnya glanced back for a moment to see Kankorou try and send Crow towards them. But Sasori expertly caught the puppet in the giant metal scorpion tail.

"That kid is done for yeah." Deidara said sounding rather highly amused, "there's no way Sasori is going to get beat by his own puppets."

"His own puppets?" Arnya said, "So that Sasori, is Sasori of the Red Sand?"

"He'd be pleased to know you've heard of him before yeah."

"I used to be friends with Kankorou, of course I've heard of him. He was the expert puppet maker of Suna, his creations were nearly unbeatable. And from what I've seen of Crow's work that's a pretty accurate statement." Arnya said knowingly, "Sasori left his village twenty-years-ago, just after the disappearance of the Third Kazekage."

"That's right, neither Sasori nor the Kazekage were ever seen again."

"So he ended up in the Akatsuki. That seems like a bit of a down fall actually."

"What do you mean yeah?"

"Well he went from being highly revered by the people of Suna for his skills with puppetry, and battle tactics. To being a shadow of nothingness in a dark, dingy little organization."

"Dark dingy little organization? Yeah."

"To be honest I had never heard of you guys until Itachi Uchiha, and the blue guy… the fish man… I don't remember his name."

"Kisame."

"Yeah him. Until they showed up in the village after the chunin exams I had no idea who the Akatsuki were." Arnya said, "and I had no plans of joining until you and Sasori found me and asked me come with you."

_Arnya was sitting in a small tea house eating a quick breakfast before moving out again. She sighed wonder where she would go next. Part of itched to return to Konoha. Just to see how the village was doing. She didn't know why. The people there had forsaken her. And all she had done was speak the truth, so much for standing by your comrades and the Will Of Fire. She left a bit of money on the table and walked out. Her mind was still contemplating what to do. Her feet were pulling her in the direction of the place she could no longer call home. _

_She was lost in her thoughts and not paying attention to where she was walking. She walked right into someone. "Ow." she landed on the ground, she glanced up and saw two rather reproachful looking men. Both donned black cloaks with a red cloud pattern emblazoned upon them. Their strange garb was topped off by wide brimmed straw hats complete with white paper streamers hanging all around it, hiding their faces._

"_Are you Arnya, formerly of the Hidden Leaf, yeah?" the one she'd run into asked._

"_Why?"_

_The man removed his hat, long blonde hair fell around his shoulders. Part of it kept up in a pony tail at the top of his head, "We're from an organization called the Akatsuki, yeah. We've been sent to find you."_

"_Me?"_

"_That's right," replied the shorter of the duo, "our leader wishes us to request your cooperation."_

"_Cooperation, you want me to join you?"_

"_Exactly, I don't really know why, but that's our orders. Yeah." the blonde guy was sizing her up, which Arnya resented. She was well aware she didn't look like much. But that was fine, if her opponent underestimated her it was his funeral. _

"_And if I refuse?"_

"_Then, we will take you by force."_

"_What if that doesn't work?"_

"_Then we kill you be done with it yeah." _

"_Well these guys obviously mean business. My options don't look to great. Join or die." Arnya thought seriously, "well Arnya what else have you got to do with your life?"_

"_Alright, I've got a few question first."_

"_Whatever. Yeah"_

"_You've already said you don't know why me, so What does the Akatsuki do?"_

"_Right now our objective is to collect and extract the spirits of all nine- tailed beats."_

"_Which explains why two of you were in Konoha a few years ago. You wanted Naruto."_

"_That's the Kyuubi kid yeah?"_

"_The one and only. Why are you collecting them?"_

"_That part is unclear, all we know is we capture the jinchuuriki host, and relieve them of their demons."_

"_Well that's vague. And what is there for me, if I go with you?"_

"_A purpose." the short one replied simply, "What else are you doing with your life right now?" _

"_You make a good point." Arnya sighed, she looked at the pair still hesitant to go with these people._

"_Look your options right now are essentially join or we kill you. Yeah, it seems like a no brainier." _

"_Fine." She resigned, "Where are we going?"_

Arnya sat down in the crook of the owl's neck trying very hard not to look down. She gulped apparently a little more audibly than she would have liked.

"Not nervous are you, yeah?"

"I have a slight problem with heights" she admitted grudgingly, she was very much disliking this guy's way of getting information out of her.

Deidara smirked, "I won't let you fall yeah."

Arnya shot him a look try to convey that she neither needed nor wanted his help or sympathy. She would have told him off but was afraid if she opened her mouth she throw up on the bird. That was bound to make Mr. psycho-bomber here angry. And she didn't particularly feel like becoming a part of his "art".

"We can land here and wait for Sasori anyway yeah."

The owl landed and Arnya was more than happy to have her feet back on solid ground. As she went to jump off the bird it sat, causing her to land on her ass and slide down it's back. One the way down her foot connected with Gaara's face throwing off her balance and landing her in a face first heap in the sand.

"You'd better hope, that wasn't intentional." she glared at Deidara while shaking sand out of the tangled black locks.

The tall blonde just smirked down at her, "Gotten your self a bit dishevelled?"

"Says the idiot with only one arm left."

Deidara opened his mouth the retort when Arnya held up a hand to silence him. "I know how Kankorou tracked us."

"What?"

"The sand, Gaara's sand." she said holding up a handful of the sand she had kicked out of Gaara's armour, "It's darker coloured, has a lighter density and a more distinctive scent than regular desert sand. A sensory type shinobi would probably be able to recognize it based on the charka infused into it alone."

"And you failed to mention this before yeah?"

"Any fool should have noticed Gaara's sand leaking from him like that."

"What does that make you then yeah?"

Arnya didn't respond but glared darkly up at him. She considered putting him under a genjutsu, then decided the little blonde bitch wasn't worth the trouble.

"Well whatever," Deidara said, "Sasori will take care of the punk and we can find some way to contain the Shukaku's trail yeah.

"but for now we wait yeah."

He situated himself in the shadow of the bird leaning against a small pile of sand.

She sat by him keeping a few feet distance. She was slowly becoming aware of how tired she felt. She hadn't actually slept since Deidara and Sasori had found her. She was unwilling to fall asleep with them so near, she didn't really trust them. Then again she didn't really trust anyone anymore. She leaned her head back against the sand. She felt her eyes beginning to close and tried to fight it. However she knew she was fighting a losing battle and slowly drifted off into darkness.

_Blood, screams, the deadly flash of steel as the sword came down. Arnya was screaming, trying to shove a young girl up the stairs. She didn't know why but she had to protect this child. Unable to force the screaming girl up the stairs she shoved her into a closet and tried to hold the door closed. The attacker came into view. She saw a woman, dark hair, pale skin, she looked familiar. "I know her, why do I know her?" Arnya watched helplessly as the sword cut through the woman, and she fell to the ground in a pathetic bloody heap. Arnya screamed something. But couldn't hear her own words over the blood pumping through her body, her heart beating fast and loud in her chest. The child she was trying to protect suddenly over powered her loosened hold on the door. Knocking Arnya over as the little girl ran towards the felled woman. Arnya could once again feel herself screaming. The entire scene blurred around her. Darkness ebbing at the corners of the bloodstained walls. Everything was fading away from her. She didn't know whether to cling to the place or let it disappear._

"Arnya!." someone was calling her name, "ARNYA!"

A hand roughly shook her shoulder, forcing her into awareness. Her arm instinctively swung out and caught Deidara under the chin, knocking him backwards. She shook her head and brought herself back to reality. She looked around to see Sasori standing near her, staring at her curiously, Deidara was picking himself up off the ground looking at her like she was a venomous snake.

"What the hell was that yeah?"

"I- I don't know. Nightmare, or a memory. Im not sure." she placed her head in her hands staring down at the ground in frustration. This dream wasn't new. She'd been having the same nightmare for years. The same, bloody, dark and blurry scene unfolding before her. The same little girl she tried to save, the same dead woman she couldn't quite figure out the identity of. The same blood curdling screams that she couldn't understand.

"You were screaming."

"I was? What was I saying? Were there words?" she had lost her cool emotionless exterior and was staring desperately at Sasori.

"Not that I heard." Sasori replied gruffly turning away from her.

"Well for a moment it sounded like you said the name Kallia, yeah." Deidara said, "does that mean anything to you?"

"No," Arnya said obviously disappointed, "no I've never heard that name before."


	5. Sealing the Shukaku

_So I seem to be writing at supersonic speed. this si what happens when you have 6 hours to spare. 3 chapter in one day XD. GO ME!_

**X~X**_  
><em>

"This is it, yeah."

The cloaked trio of missing-nin leaped off the cliff and landed lightly upon the surface of the stream. Their captive still unconscious and constricted in Deidara's clay owl. Deidara continued to glance periodically at Arnya. Since her little 'episode' she had returned to the blank coolness, that reminded Deidara annoyingly of Itachi.

Arnya watched Deidara step forward to open the entrance. She was about to ask how someone with one arm could do any sort of jutsu, when all Deidara did was slam his palm into the boulder and it moved. Rising off the ground to allow them in. they approached the dark holograph that was their leader. His eyes standing out in startling contrast to his shadow. The wide ripple pattern narrowed dangerously at the three if them. "You're late."

Arnya didn't bother listening to Deidara making excuses. She was taking in her surroundings. The cave wasn't much to marvel at. She was surprised, she had been expecting a lot more. Instead she got an empty hole is a cliff face.

She turned back towards her team-mates at the same time that Pain, performed a summoning jutsu. A large stone statue appeared in the center of the cave. The statue depicted 2 large upward facing hands with all ten fingers pointed upwards. The hands were cuffed together creating a closed space. The other part of the statue was a large carved out face with -at a quick count- nine eyes. "one for each beast." Arnya reasoned.

Pain or rather Pain's holographic image turned towards Arnya. "Your place is which ever finger I had instructed you to wear your ring on." Arnya quickly glanced down at her hand. The slate blue ring, with the kanji for sky emblazoned upon it, rested on her left little finger. She then looked up at the hands and leapt to her designated position.

As she landed gently on the tip of the finger, six other holographic figures appeared filling up the hands.

She briefly looked to her right to see Kisame standing by her. Sasori was on the thumb. And the two men whose names Arnya couldn't recall (unfortunately Arnya's short term memory was a bit hazy. She suspected this had something to do with her childhood amnesia) took up the middle and forefinger. On the other hand. Pain stood at the thumb. Deidara beside him on the index, the silent little woman next to him. Itachi and the plant like guy finishing off the row, on the ring and little fingers.

"Be prepared everyone. This will take three days, as usual." Pain announced,

"I wonder if it will be more than that, without Orochimaru with us." Kisame asked, "and this being our new recruits first time."

"Yes well. It will take as long as it shall." Pain said, was he always this cryptic?, "Zetsu, have your real body scout around the area for any intruders."

At this everyone raised their hands. In simple hand seal. Two fingers raised in front of their lips. The statue's mouth opened and a stream of blue- that Arnya knew was controlled by the group's collective chakra- spilled out and wound it's way around Gaara's unconscious form. The red-headed Kazekage was lifted into the air and suspended in the middle of the glowing chakra pool. As the jutsu began to take it's effect on him. Red streams began extracting from his mouth and eyes. Arnya knew this to be the chakra of the Shukaku, having seen Naruto Uzumaki's red Kyuubi chakra herself.

**X~X**

The group stood in silence. Watching the life being sucked out of the boy. By Arnya's watch they had been at it for about a day when Zetsu reported. "We have guest."

"Who?" Pain asked.

"A very skilled and formidable foe," This was said in a different way than the last statement. Arnya glanced up and realized that it was his white half talking this time. The voice much softer and less abrasive than the dark half, "Maito Gai of Konoha and his team." Arnya smirked slightly as she remembered Maito Gai, and his merry band of misfits as she had once jokingly called them. Ten-Ten, Rock Lee, and Neji Hyuuga.

"I'll go," said the purple eyed man on Sasori's left, "it will allow me to make up for failing to catch a jinchuuriki."

"No," Kisame interrupted, "I have a personal score to settle with Maito Gai, I'll go." Arnya once again smirked to herself as she remembered Gai kicking the hell out of Big Blue (her new private nickname for Kisame) when he and Itachi had first come to Konoha in search of the Kyuubi.

"Very well," Pain said simply. Just barely acknowledging the events around him, "but I still require thirty percent of your chakra here."

"If Gai's team is here we should be prepared." Arnya said.

"What do you mean?" Pain looked towards her

"Do you really think Gai will have been the only one sent?" Arnya said simply looking back at him, her Sharingan meeting his Rinnegan, "I'll bet you anything Kakashi Hatake won't be far behind. And no doubt that'd he'd have Naruto with him."

"Very well. Zetsu, be on the look out for the Copy Ninja."

A few more moments of silence passed when Zetsu again reported, "Arnya was right, The Copy Ninja and his team are en route."

"let me go this time." Purple eyes said again.

"No," Zetsu's dark half spoke, "this time it should be a pair of Leaf ninja."

Arnya and Itachi looked up at each other. Their Sharingans locked for a moment. And they both nodded their understanding.

"Arnya do you know how to use that Jutsu?" Pain asked

"Of course." Arnya replied, "What use would I be to you people if I didn't know something as simple as that?"

At that Pain actually gave a low chuckle, "That's true."


	6. Reunion

Arnya and Itachi now stood shoulder to shoulder waiting for Team Kakashi to reach them. Arnya however was struck by a sudden idea and moved to stand by the trees out of sight.

As she immersed herself in the shadows none other than Kakashi Hatake came to a sudden stop in front of Itachi.

She heard the familiar voice before she saw him, "Kakashi-Sensei what's going…" he trailed off as his eyes landed on Itachi.

"Who is this?" came another familiar voice. Arnya grinned darkly as she watched the two people she would have once considered her best friends land on either side of their Sensei.

She watched them from the trees as a final person landed. This one she didn't recognize. An old woman, wearing a blue gown type thing she knew to be common Sunagakure garb. So this old bag of bones was a sand ninja?

Naruto growled low in his throat as he stared at their visible adversary. "Itachi Uchiha."

"What," Sakura said giving Naruto a shocked looked, "So this is him. The one whose after you. Sasuke's older brother."

"Wow," Arnya thought bitterly, "She actually though of Naruto before Sasuke for once."

"Where is Gaara!" Naruto yelled his eyes glowing fiercely.

Kakashi was about to say something when Arnya decided to announce herself.

"Wow." she called out stepping out from the shadows, "When did you get taller than me Underdog?"

The Leaf Shinobi froze and followed the sound of her voice. As their eyes landed on her all eyes widened in shock.

"A-Arnya?" Kakashi said, not really believing it was her.

"Good to see you too Kakashi." She smirked as she took her place next to Itachi.

Naruto was eyeing her Akatsuki cloak with sadness and anger, "The Akatsuki Arnya?"

"Funny that's pretty much exactly what Kankorou said."

"Of all the things you could have done, you sunk this low?" Kakashi sounded outraged.

"You haven't greeted me yet Sakura." Arnya said turning her attention to the pink haired Kunoichi.

"You can't be serious." Sakura said, "Arnya, they're after Naruto, and now they have Gaara. And everything he," she gave Itachi a glare of purest death, "did to Sasuke. How could you do this to us?"

"If I recall correctly it was you that told me I was nothing but a traitorous, little bitch that didn't deserve your friendship or sympathy Sakura." Arnya said coldly turning her deep crimson Sharingan on the girl, "And I'm pretty sure the rest of you made it perfectly clear that you all felt the same way. None of you could handle to truth of the situation."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Naruto screamed out.

"Calm down kid you're going to give yourself an ulcer," Arnya mocked him quietly, "and which part isn't true, the fact that you had all forsaken and hated me for stating blatant fact or do you still believe my statements to be untrue?"

Naruto and Sakura were at a loss for words. Kakashi spoke for them, "We never hated you Arnya, you were our comrade we would not forsake you for stating what you believed."

"That's not what, Pinkie and Kyuubi here said." Arnya said nodding her head at Naruto and Sakura, "So much for standing by your friends no matter what. Eh. Naruto?"

Itachi remained silent, his expression it usual almost lifeless blank. But inside he was raging. "Well that explains part of it. She said something that pissed them off and their reactions caused her to leave the village. But what did she say?"

Naruto's hands were shaking, he stared at Arnya, sadness and anger welling up inside him, "Arnya, I never intended to."

"Never intended to make me feel like an unwanted outcast. Never intended to make me feel you'd all be better off without me. Well Naruto whether you intended it or not that's what happened. And now here we are."

"I don't want to have to hurt you Arnya." Kakashi said quietly, "and just so you know, we searched for you. Just as much as we searched for Sasuke. We wanted you back, Lady Tsunade has been getting extreme pressure from many people to have you declared a missing-nin and she always put it off. She, we had faith in you."

"Well since when does Tsunade win her bets?" Arnya said with a taunting smirk.

Itachi watched her form the corner of his eyes. The smirked that played across his lips was horribly familiar "Yeah. Definably an Uchiha."

"Well," Arnya said when they had no response, "I've had my fun. Itachi, it's your turn."


	7. Chunin Exams Part 1

_This entire chapter is flashback to Naruto meeting Arnya at the Chunin Exams. I felt no purpose in italicizing the whole chapter. _

**X~X**_  
><em>

Naruto couldn't help but stare blankly at the dark haired girl talking with her team-mates. There was something so familiar about her. He glanced over and noticed Sasuke looking at her as well. "She looks really familiar." Naruto said to see if maybe Sasuke knew who she was.

"Yeah she does." Sasuke said, he turned to Kabuto, "do you have any Intel on her?"

Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose and looked in the direction of the smiling girl sitting on a desk, "Do you know her name?"

"No."

"Alright I'll see what I can do" he turned another card around and flipped it over.

A picture of the girl appeared beside it were a few stats on her abilities, the pictures of her team-mates and Sensei. And underneath were her mission stats.

"Her name is Arnya, she's fourteen. She has an affinity for fire style attacks, and she possesses the Kekkai Genkai Sharingan."

"What!" Sakura said, "how could she have that?"

"It doesn't say," Kabuto said, "the girl is an amnesiac, she doesn't remember anything before waking up in a hospital when she was nine-years-old, there's not even a family name listed.

"her team-mates are, Jade Kamizuki, and Sukai Hyuuga. Their sensei Genma Shiranui."

"She seems fairly approachable, Sasuke if you want to know about her just go ask." Sakura suggested.

Sasuke took her advise and walked towards the girl. He however stopped, "what the hell would I say?" he realized, "Hi, you look annoyingly familiar do I know you?"

It was in that moment that the mystery girl and her two team-mates approached them instead. "uh, this is going to sound strange. But" The girl started off, looking from Sasuke to Naruto, "you two look very familiar, have I met you before?"

Sasuke sighed, his hesitation had been utterly pointless, "I was about to come ask you the same thing."

"Oh," and she smiled, though her eyes held a bit of disappointment, "a lot of people seem to familiar to me here for some reason. I just wish I could remember who they were."

She sighed as her eyes scanned across the large group if rather intimidating looking people, "If looking scary is part of the test, I've already failed."

Sakura laughed, "that was my exact thought coming in here. I'm Sakura Haruno by the way." she held out her hand with a smile.

"Arnya," the girl smiled back warmly, "these are my team-mates Jade," she motioned to a small, mousy looking blue eyed girl on her right, "and Sukai." she turned to the tallest member of her team, the boy smiled, his Byakugan white eyes staring kindly down at them.

"Naruto Uzumaki,"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

The two boys of team seven watched as recognition sparked in her black eyes.

"Even your names sound familiar."

"Really? What do they make you think of?" Sakura asked

"For some reason hearing Naruto's name it made me think Hokage." Arnya looked extremely confused, "is there any reason the two would be connected?"

Sasuke's eyes went wide with shock "No," he thought, "there is no possible way."

Naruto smiled widely, "It should, I'm gonna be Hokage someday."

Sakura smacked her forehead with heal of her palm, "For the love of god, don't encourage him"

"Do you remember anything, anything at all about growing up in this village?" Sasuke interrupted staring at Arnya like she was ghost.

"Growing up here?" Arnya said, "that would have preferable. No I don't remember anything before I was nine-years-old. I spent three years in the little non-shinobi village not far from here. Moved out here when I was twelve. I wanted to be a ninja. Not something you can achieve out there."

"I see." Sasuke said quietly, "a jutsu" he thought, "is that why she doesn't remember me? But why?… why would Itachi leave her alive too?"


	8. Battles and Memories

_I apologise for the general suckyness of this chapter. I didn't know what to do after the battle. I didn't want it to be them just standing in silence waiting to finish. So I filled it with some information on Arnya. I'll do better next time. I promise._

**X~X**_  
><em>

Kakashi stood at the ready. He quickly warned Sakura and Naruto not to look Itachi in the eye.

Arnya and Itachi quickly looked at each other, she knew his genjutsu would incapacitate most of them in an instant. But there was no way their luck was good enough to get all of them. Kakashi being the most likely to detect and avoid it she would try and take him on, while he caught Naruto and Sakura.

The logical part of Arnya's mind said being the one to take Kakashi on was a bad thing. The man was powerful and his Sharingan was formidable. The adrenaline pumping through her was more than ready to take the Copy Ninja on. If she could beat Kakashi Hatake she'd have surpassed the one Leaf Ninja she still held any form of respect for.

Naruto being Naruto ran first, his rasengan at the ready. Arnya prepared to get out of the way when she saw him blast the glowing blue ball of chakra energy into nothing. She smirked when she realized that Itachi already had him is a genjutsu. With Naruto out of the way she made her move towards Kakashi. But was blocked when Sakura jumped in front of her.

"You really think you can beat me Sakura?" Arnya said, "be honest with your self. What type of skills have you ever had, you barely have any real ninjutsu, your taijutsu is pitiful. The only thing your good at is genjutsu and my Sharingan wont be fooled by your pathetic illusions."

Sakura however smiled, "You've been gone three years now Arnya, you have no idea what I can do anymore." with that Sakura's fist glowed faint greenish colour and collided with the ground.

"What the…?" Arnya called out as the earth around her cracked and shattered, threatening to drag her into it's depths. She quickly jumped back onto solid ground. She looked up at Sakura who was looking rather pleased with herself, "I get it," Arnya thought, "she gathers chakra in her fist, focuses it and releases it all at once, her destructive force is spectacular… when did she… no I should I have expected this, she became the Hokage's apprentice, and that woman is monstrous."

Then Naruto yelled out, she looked quickly to see the boy stumble back. She whirled around to see Itachi looking surprised. "Naruto broke the genjutsu?" Arnya wondered, "how could he have done that? Itachi's are stronger than mine and mine always kept Naruto circling."

"Naruto what happened?" Sakura asked momentarily taking her eyes off Arnya, "you went all blank then started shoot your rasengan off at nothing."

Arnya used this distraction to her advantage, she performed a number of speedy hand signs and spit several mid sized balls of fire towards the pink-haired girl. Sakura would have been burned if Kakashi hadn't suddenly jumped forward and used a quick water style technique to block the flames.

Kakashi then began running at her. She wasn't very worried though. This one was a shadow clone. Kakashi's seals were fast but not quick enough to escape her eyes. As the chidori wielding clone approached her, Arnya moved to the left and planted a kunai in clone Kakashi's back. At the same moment the weapon entered the diversion the real Kakashi came up behind her. He attempted to hit the back of the head knocking her out, but Arnya whirled quickly around and swung out a powerful kick into Kakashi's chest. As this Kakashi flew away it vanished with a small pop and a puff of gray smoke. A as the smoke cleared she was a dented log land.

"Substitutions, shadow clones, Where might I find the real Kakashi Hatake?" She asked tauntingly.

"Over here!" Kakashi called, Arnya prepared for attack when she saw Kakashi run at Itachi. Itachi easily blocked the chidori and grabbed a hold of Kakashi's fist. "NOW NARUTO!" he called and Naruto Uzumaki seemed to fall from the sky a rasengan bigger than Arnya had ever seen landing in Itachi's chest. The Uchiha was blasted backwards leaving a long trail in the ground where his body had dragged. It was at that moment that Arnya felt a shock in her back.

Kakashi had come up behind her and used Chidori. There however wasn't enough power behind it to kill her. Arnya turned and grabbed Kakashi's wrist. She opened her mouth to speak when she felt rasengan implant in the same spot on her back. Every thing went dark, and her body fell to the ground. Just before the world went completely black the jutsu broke.

"Son-of-a-bitch." Arnya muttered angrily. Standing upon her designated spot for the sealing jutsu.

"They get you too?" Kisame mumbled beside her.

"Yeah… Kakashi got me from behind, when I turned to block him I got a Rasengan in my spine."

"Better than losing an arm yeah." Deidara called to her from across the cave.

"We wouldn't be dealing with this so soon if you hadn't drawn so much attention to yourself Deidara." Sasori said, in his deep drawling voice.

Deidara was about to respond when Pain cut in "Stop fighting amongst yourselves. Focus on the task at hand."

It was silence again for a few more moments. When Itachi could no longer contain his curiosity "Arnya?"

"Yeah."

"Why did you call the Kyuubi kid, Underdog?" So that wasn't exactly what he wanted to know but he figured asking what she had said to anger them was a bad idea right now.

Arnya actually let out a small laugh, "I've been calling him that for years. It started out at the chunin exams during his preliminary battle with the Inuzuka kid."

"A sign of attachment yeah?" Deidara said almost accusingly.

"That's for making fun of your arm earlier wasn't it?," Arnya smirked, "No it's a habit. Call someone something for a little over a year it sticks. And I come up with nicknames for pretty much everyone."

"Why?" Kisame asked

"My short term memory sucks." Arnya sighed, "Nicknames help me continue to identify people. So if at some point I call you the blue one. Don't get offended, it'll just take me longer than most to remember your actual name."

"Blue one?" Kisame didn't sound to pleased.

"Well Shark Boy is an option too."

"Kid your lucky I'm not actually standing beside you right now."

"He's touchy about his appearance yeah." Deidara told her.

"Ah, so sword guy is probably least likely to get me shredded. Understood."

Kisame sighed, "I suppose I can live with that one."

"Sword Guy it is."

"Wait, What about the rest of us, yeah?" Deidara asked.

"You something to do with explosions. Stand by until I actually come up with something."

"Sasori's named I've already got down, I knew it already from being around Kankorou, um," She was looking at Itachi, "See I've already failed here, so if at any point I accidentally call you Sasuke please don't kill me… you two look alike.

"The rest of you, I've already forgotten your names, and what you looked like is hazy, so you'll have to wait."

'So you had nicknames for everyone in Konoha?" Itachi wondered

"Not everyone…" Arnya answered, "Naruto was Underdog, Sakura, was Pinkie or Cherry, Rock Lee's I picked up from Naruto, Bushy Brow, Kakashi I didn't call a nickname as often as I could avoid it, but sometimes it came out Copy Ninja-Sensei. Sasuke was whiny, bitch, loser, sometimes idiot, and when all else failed Uchiha jerk." she smiled sarcastically.

"For the most part everyone other than Naruto and Bushy Brow looked like they wanted to kick me when I used one. My own team-mates hated it.

"I could never remember Jade's name at first, and she really hated when I called her 'Sensei's friend's little sister', and Sukai was either 'the tall one' or 'the Team Four Hyuuga.'"

"You managed to end up with Sharingan and Byakugan on one genin squad?" Sasori asked.

"Yeah, we probably would have been considered the ones to beat at the chunin exams if Neji Hyuuga wasn't there." Arnya said, "he was a lot more affinitive with his gentle fist jutsu than Sukai was. And well Neji was just an asshole. The kid was bitter, angry at the main branch of the Hyuuga clan. Sukai was more passive, he didn't hold any ill will towards them. Any way he looked at it they were his blood and despising them was pointless. In fact he pretty much tried to get along with everyone."

"You say it in past tense. Is he no longer like that?" Pain asked, even he was curious about this girl.

"No Sukai died. He was the only actual causality of the Sasuke Retrieval mission." Arnya said, for the first time you could hear a genuine emotion in her voice. Sadness. "he and Naruto went after Sasuke after the rest of the group got caught up in battling Ororchimaru's henchmen," there was a collective scoff of displeasure throughout the group at Ororchimaru's name. "They went up against Kimmimaro. Sukai was stabbed through the chest by one of his weapons. He bled out and died before the medical team got out there.

"When Jade found out she was heartbroken, they two of them had been seeing each other. She wasn't really right after that. She left the shinobi life behind and last I'd heard was working with her mother in the seamstress shop."

No one seemed to know how to respond. There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Anyway," Arnya returned to her state of monotone, "it doesn't matter now, it was almost three years ago, and I'm no longer a kunoichi of the leaf, I left all of them behind and they have me."


	9. Art Attack

After three gruelling and painful days, Sabaku No Gaara felt the last of Shukaku's spirit forcibly removed from his body, slowly dragging the very life from him. The ten cloaked shinobi watched as the Kazekage's limp lifeless body fell to the ground. The light had gone from his pale green eyes, as they stared blankly towards the heavens.

It was in that moment that Zetsu once again reported. "Both Leaf teams have arrived and are preparing to break the jutsu sealing the entrance."

"That means the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki is with them, yeah." Deidara, sounded somewhat excited at the idea of catching another.

"Sasori, you will deal with the brat." Pain said regarding the shortest member.

Sasori snickered at that, "Sorry Itachi." he said slyly glancing towards the Uchiha.

"Itachi, you've dealt with the kid before yeah, what can you tell us about him?"

"He is the one who charges in and barks first." Itachi replied simply

Arnya snickered and said, "Yeah that's about the best description of Naruto I've ever heard."

With that Itachi's holographic shadow flickered away leaving, Deidara, Sasori and Arnya standing in the once again empty cave.

"Asshole." Deidara grumbled

"Is he always that moody?" Arnya asked sarcastically.

"If you witness Itachi Uchiha smile it means you're about to die." Sasori replied. But his voice was different. He sounded younger, less husky. Arnya turned and saw that what she had believed to be Sasori had opened up and a young red-headed man stepped out.

Arnya was momentarily dumbfounded. She had most definably not expected Sasori to look like that or be that youthful.

Deidara snickered and stepped over to her, "Surprised yeah?" he spoke quietly so that only she could hear.

"I thought he left Suna twenty years ago. He'd be about thirty-five now, he looks somewhere between seventeen and twenty."

"He is technically thirty-five, yeah." Deidara seemed somewhat hesitant, "it's complicated."

"I suppose I'd get stabbed if I tried to ask?"

"Depends on the mood he's in yeah." Deidara said, "for the most part he actually answers questions."

"Hmm, he didn't strike as hospitable."

They both glanced towards Sasori who was sitting beside his puppet container tweaking the joints strengthening it, "You're both horribly obvious. If there is something you wish to know just say so. Don't beat around and be a pest."

"Fine," Arnya said, carefully approaching the young man "Why do you look so young? As far as I know Sasori of the Red Sand left Sunagakure twenty years ago, you should be older."

Sasori allowed a small grin to pull at his lips as he turned towards her, "So you knew who I am as well. For my name to be known to someone as young as you."

"Kankorou is why I knew, you were the creator of his babies." Arnya said, "Crow and Black Ant. The quality is beyond that of any other ninja puppet I've ever heard of. You were said to be the best."

At that Sasori actually smiled, "When Pain decides your actual placement I'm going to see if I can trade Deidara for you."

"I'm irreplaceable and you know it yeah." Deidara scoffed.

"Shut up brat, adults are talking." Sasori snipped back at his partner.

"I'm older than she is yeah."

"Maturity before age." Arnya muttered so that only Sasori could hear.

Sasori snorted out a short laugh, Deidara looked curiously over at the pair and said, "You've avoided her question Danna. You're not going to keep her waiting on an answer are you, yeah"

"Ah yes, well. I'm not truly a living human." Sasori said as if that explained everything.

Arnya didn't say anything she simply looked at him obviously more confused than before.

Sasori sighed and stood up. "I suppose this is only fair, Deidara has been able to demonstrate his botched idea of art, now I can show mine." He unbuttoned the Akatsuki cloak, the fabric fell to the floor revealing something that made Arnya's eyes widen in shock.

"So you turned yourself into a puppet?" Arnya said taking in his hardened wooden body. Her eyes passed over the opened hole where a stomach would usually be, she noticed a trap door like area on the left side of his chest, and the cylindrical purple object implanted in the right.

"Exactly," Sasori said, "I made myself into the ultimate work of art. Something that will last for ages, never fading. Eternal beauty, the truest form of art."

Deidara scoffed, "Art is an explosion. An instantaneous moment yeah."

"What is the point of something that dies the moment it is born. True art survives the test of time."

"Life is only beautiful because of it's fleeting nature yeah. The world moves to quickly for something that's always there to be truly recognized. that's why true art is something quick and memorable yeah."

Arnya stood between the two men as they argued over the meaning of art. She could only hope they wouldn't end up dragging her into it. If she disagreed with Deidara, she'd be bombed. If she disagreed with Sasori the poison coated metal rope in his 'stomach' was likely to end up through her.

Her liking of Deidara went down very quickly as he turned towards her, "What do you think Arnya, yeah?"

She sighed, well either way one of them is going to get pissed so might as well be honest. "Although I find both of your art forms interesting, I've got to lean more towards Deidara's ideals."

Sasori gave her a dangerous look, "Just when I was starting to like you."

Deidara called out in victory. "It's decided then, yeah."

"We've been having this argument for nearly four years."

"You've officially declared me the winner yeah." Deidara was grinning widely at her.

"Why the hell would you give me that power?" Arnya asked. Allowing some of her amusement to show.

"Because you're the only person that's actually answered the question." Sasori said, "and well Deidara has tried literally everyone."

"Itachi, Kisame, and Kakuzu ignored me yeah, Hidan took the opportunity to tried and convert me, Zetsu said he didn't are so long as he could eat it yeah. Konan rolled her eyes and said her origami was better than anything either of us could do. And Pain told me to shut the hell up and stop asking yeah."

"Ah so I have just settled what could have been the debate of the century?" Arnya said sarcastically.

"Hmm maybe she's not completely crazy, yeah" Deidara thought watching her grin.

"And of all people you choose the one that already has an ego as big as this cave." Sasori said, he had already pulled his cloak back on and was jumping back into Hiruko.

Arnya chose not to respond to that comment, She actually found Deidara rather entertaining. He'd be fun to piss off later. So she changed the subject, "Anyway, would like a better description of Naruto, or shall we leave at Sasu- I mean Itachi's oh so specifically detailed one?"

"that right you were friends with him yeah."

"Keyword being 'were'" Arnya said simply, "He's tall, blonde, blue eyes, and distinctive marks on his face like whiskers. He wear an orange and black sweater, and orange pants. And when he gets particularly angry, his blue eyes turn red, the whiskers and more pronounced and his voice becomes a deep angry growl. And though I've only seen a brief glimpse of it once, if his rage gets too far out of his control the fox's chakra may show itself in the nine-tails cloak.

"Other than that he's a close range fighter, he can pack some serious strength behind his punch. And watch out for his Rasengan. If that gets you your done."

"They'll be figuring out how to get in soon." Sasori said going and taking a place facing the entrance.

Arnya went to stay beside him while Deidara went to her other side and sat down. Arnya glanced over to see what he was sitting on and saw Gaara's body. "Well that's a good way to piss Naruto off." she commented simply.

"Really yeah?" Deidara thought for a moment, "so if something else happens to the body."

"the best way you could possibly trap him would be to lure him somewhere with Gaara. He'd follow, Naruto doesn't think when he gets riled up."

"That's interesting yeah."


	10. Provoking the NineTails

Sakura ran forwards on Kakashi's signal. Her fist made contact with the giant boulder and it crumbled under her monstrous strength. The shattered rock fell away allowing the four shinobi to enter the cave. Awaiting their arrival were three cloaked adversaries.

A short hunched over man, with small beady eyes.

A tall blonde man was sitting on Gaara's body.

And standing between them was her. The woman Sakura's once dear friend. Arnya stood looking at all of them with a smirk.

Naruto charged in a froze the moment he saw Gaara. "What do you think you're doing?" he screamed at Deidara, "Get off of him!"

Arnya watched as Naruto's deep blue eyes changed to a fiery red, the usually round pupils changing into long slits. The little black markings on his face became more pronounced. His finger nails grew a bit longer and sharper, and as he barred his teeth Arnya noticed his canines looked a little bit longer. His blonde hair seemed slightly longer and appeared spikier as it stood more on end.

As the Kyuubi's chakra flowed through Naruto, fuelled by his rage, his appearance became more and more animalistic.

Naruto began screaming nonsense at Gaara's lifeless form. Urging the Kazekage to get up and stop playing. Arnya's face betrayed no expression as she watched her once close friend begin to lose control of himself.

"Naruto, that's enough!" Kakashi interrupted as Naruto took a step towards the Akatsuki trio.

"Arnya!" Naruto suddenly screamed, tears leaking from his eyes, "How could be a part of this? Gaara was your friend. He trusted you."

Arnya just stared at Naruto. She had no real response for him. If Arnya were to be truthful with herself, she didn't want to hurt Gaara. But her current capacity to care would barely fill a teaspoon.

Naruto stared back into her emotionless eyes and felt a stab of pain in his chest. He missed Arnya dearly. Not the woman standing before him, this wasn't the real one. The Arnya that Naruto knew and loved was almost always smiling and laughing, she cared for her friends, and fought fiercely for them.

While Arnya wasn't paying attention, Deidara and Sasori had been talking away. Suddenly the two had once again resumed their argument over art. Sasori was currently standing in front of Arnya threatening Deidara with his poisonous puppet tail. Deidara smirked and looked up at Arnya, "I thought we had this settled by our lovely new member here yeah."

Arnya sighed and rolled her eyes, "I'm not getting involved in this one. You two kill each other. The winner is a true artist and we can get back to work."

Sasori snickered darkly, "I like the way she thinks." he raised the scorpion like tail.

"I agree with the getting to work part yeah." With that Deidara skilfully dodged Sasori's attack and throwing a little clay bird to the side. In a puff of smoke it became one of Deidara's large birds. The creature leaned over and picked Gaara up in it's mouth.

Deidara then leapt onto the bird and glanced down at Arnya, "You coming yeah?"

Arnya looked from Deidara to Sasori, and decided that she'd rather see some shit get bombed than watch Sasori fight.

She leapt up and landed lightly beside Deidara. Who smirked and placed his hand on her waist to steady her.

She felt his arm wrap onto her and she instinctively elbowed back catching Deidara in the ribs. "Don't push your luck." she said dangerously.

With that the bird flew out of the cave, "Come on Kyuubi follow us yeah." Deidara muttered zooming in on Naruto with the scope attached to his left eye.

Naruto did just that, running after the giant bird growling in rage. Kakashi was right behind him leaving Sakura and the old lady to fight Sasori.

"Damn Copy-Ninja, yeah." Deidara complained watching Kakashi chase after Naruto.

"I should have anticipated him following, he knows the Akatsuki are after Naruto. He's not stupid enough to let Naruto tear off after two of it's members unguarded."

"Well we'll just have to deal with him wont we yeah." Deidara smiled darkly.

Arnya was taken aback for a moment by his evil little grin. "He's cuter than Sasori." she thought. Temporarily allowing hormones to take over her mind before turning her sharingan towards Kakashi.

Deidara began throwing explosive bugs towards the Leaf Jounin. Arnya watched as Kakashi fell back to avoid the bugs. Yelling at Naruto to slow down.

A few moments after Deidara's creatures were employed there was a large explosion behind them. "Copy-Ninja down yeah." Deidara smirked, "now we just have Kyuubi to deal with

"But if I caught the Shukaku the Kyuubi shouldn't be that hard yeah."

"Don't get over confident Deidara. This kid took Gaara down when he attacked Konoha."

"Well we just need to make sure he doesn't start thinking clearly, yeah. Keep him agitated and following so we can trap him yeah."

Arnya's tactical mind went into hyper drive. She was carefully analysing the surroundings. She saw a wooded area that would be a good place to lay some sort of trap. She began to relay her knowledge of Naruto's abilities through her mind.

He's a close range fighter, so if we keep our distance his abilities are pretty much useless. His rasengan wont reach us that way. Using Gaara as bait has worked well so far, maybe leaving his body somewhere. Do we have ropes or a net?… no we don't. ok, I have trip wire. It'd crude but it would bind his hands. Might cut him a bit, oh well. Collateral damage. But that involves getting close to an angry demonic fox boy. Hmm… I wonder if Mr. Psycho Bomber can make something binding with that detonating clay? That would be the best. If it moves on its own we don't have to get close. Once he's bound we knock him out and bring him to the others. Kyuubi captured!

Arnya finalized her plan and turned to Deidara. "I know what we should do."

"What've you got in mind yeah?"

"Those trees, we fly towards them, plant Gaara's body as a trap. Can you create anything binding, that may replace rope with your clay?"

"No problem yeah."

"Good. We go to the trees, plant Gaara as bait. Wait for Naruto to show up. You get him in your clay rope, or what ever it'll be. We knock him out, and Ta-Da Kyuubi in custody. Then we can go meet up with Sasori and get the hell out of here."

"You thought all that up that quickly yeah?" Deidara sounded somewhat impressed.

"Yeah I did. Why is that so shocking?"

"I think I'm starting to understand why Pain-sama wanted you in our humble little organization yeah." Deidara said. Arnya raised an eyebrow and gave him a strange look. She wasn't sure she liked the way he was looking her up and down. Not sizing her up but, drinking in her appearance. His blue eyes scanning over the gentle curve of her hips. And stopping for a moment on her well sized chest, that was easily seen as she had the top of her Akatsuki cloak unbuttoned. And the tight leather that squeezed around her breast didn't leave much to Deidara's obviously working imagination.

Arnya cleared her throat loudly, "We are kind of in the middle of something here Psycho Bomber." she stated pointedly, "If Naruto gets his hands on you because you're too busy being a horny retard I'm not going to save you."

"Psycho Bomber, yeah?" He smirked at her.

"Better than little blonde bitch" she thought, deciding answering him out loud would hold no purpose.

"How do you remember Psycho Bomber, better than Deidara yeah?" he was mocking her

"Shut the fuck up Blondie and focus on the plan."

"Blondie makes more sense yeah."

Arnya rolled her eyes and focused back on Naruto, except he was no longer alone.

"Your 'art' failed, Kakashi's back."

"What, The Copy-Ninja survived yeah!" Deidara looked down and saw Naruto and Kakashi muttering to each other.

"Shit." Arnya swore, "That's our plan gone. Kakashi will know it's a trap and get us before we could get away with Naruto. I need to reanalyse the situation, and come up with something new. On top of that if he manages to calm Naruto down we have a problem. The kid is powerful when he's thinking clearly."

"No, we stick to your original plan and factor the Copy-Ninja in yeah." Deidara suggested thoughtfully, "I'll find some way to take him out, at the same time that you get a hold of the Jinchuuriki yeah."

"Fine. But lets move fast, we don't want to give Kakashi time to think anything up."

The pair had almost reached the trees when the air around them seemed to thicken. A dark hole appeared by Deidara and looked as though it was sucking him into it.

Arnya looked quickly towards Kakashi, "Mangekyo Sharingan," She muttered,

"This is Kamui, it will suck whatever it hits into a different dimension of sorts." she explained quickly to Deidara, who was struggling to keep himself out of the vortex.

"How do you avoid it yeah?" he yelled.

"You generally don't." Arnya said bluntly, "but this is smaller than they usually are, Kakashi's probably got a limited range, by the looks of it he's going to try and take off your head."

Deidara just gaped at her, "HOW THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HELP US RIGHT NOW YEAH!"

"It means that if you keep your fucking neck out of there you'll be fine."

"Easier said than done yeah." he was trying to pull himself away from the black hole, the pull was proving greater than Deidara's bodily strength. Arnya was also worried that even if he managed to get himself out of the vortex he'd fall right off the bird.

Arnya jumped up and grabbed Deidara from behind. Her arms wrapped around his chest and she pulled him as much out of the way as possible. At the very least she'd saved his head. But the hole caught hold of his right arm and Deidara let out a growl of pain as his forearm was cut off at the elbow.

Suddenly the pull of Kamui was gone and Arnya and Deidara landed on top of each other. Arnya was about to growl something about Deidara getting his fat ass off of her before she fully realized that he had no arms. He wouldn't be able to pull himself up.

She placed her hands on his back and pushed him back into a standing position. He swayed for a moment threatening to topple right off the bird. Arnya grasped the front of his Akatsuki cloak and pulled him forward steadying him.

"Thanks yeah." he said simply offering a small appreciative smile.

As the two Akatsuki members righted themselves a glowing blue light entered their space. Deidara was hit in the side as Naruto jumped forward Rasengan at the ready. A shadow clone then body checked Arnya, and both she and Deidara were thrown from the bird.

Deidara steadied himself in midair and landed easily on a tree branch. He looked up and saw Arnya do a graceful flip in the air and land lightly beside him.

The pair watched as several Naruto's landed carrying the head of Deidara's clay bird.

"What're the chances of you being able to blow him up with that?" Arnya asked jokingly

Deidara snickered a bit at that. "I could, but we'd never get out of here quick enough to avoid the blast yeah. And I don't much feel like dieing for the sake of your momentary entertainment yeah."

"And we can't kill the Kyuubi." Arnya sighed.

The Naruto clones began ripping apart the bird's head trying to retrieve Gaara.

They were all yelling the same general thing. Calling to Gaara as if the dead could hear.

"It's no use," Deidara said smugly, "we already told you, the boy is dead."

Another Naruto appeared s few feet from them on another branch. This one appeared to be the real one.

Arnya noticed immediately the return of his feral appearance. She gave Deidara a sideways glance to see the nineteen-year-old Akatsuki member wink at her. She gave him a puzzled look when he suddenly jumped from the branch. Motioning with his head for her to follow.

Naruto caught Deidara in midair. His fist connected harshly with Deidara's face. Arnya leapt from her branch not entirely sure of what she was doing. A Naruto clone caught her around the middle and forced her to the ground. However as they landed Arnya disappeared in a puff of gray smoke leaving a log in her place.

The real Naruto continued to pound Deidara, until he realized that he was beating a mound of white clay.

Deidara and Arnya lay flat on their stomachs in a bush watching. A small trickle of blood leaked from Deidara's mouth and Arnya had a scratch on the side of her face from Naruto's fingernails.

The pair watched as orange chakra bubbled around the young Jinchuuriki. Black lines rimmed around his mouth and eyes, Naruto's resemblance to the Demon Fox became that much more heightened as he crouched his body down on all fours. A single orange tail sprouting from the bubbling chakra cloak surrounding the boy.

"The nine tails cloak." Arnya whispered. Deidara nodded his understanding and continued to observe the situation.

As a second tail appeared from the cloak Kakashi jumped down in front of Naruto. The fox boy looked towards his sensei as Kakashi leapt towards him placing a piece of paper with a chakra repressing seal on the boy's forehead.

The cloak retracted, the black lines left his face, Naruto's teeth and fingernails returned to their usual size. His eyes were once again round and blue.

"Kakashi-sensei!" there came a voice as Sakura and the old sand kunoichi joined the group.

"What?" Deidara muttered, "They beat Sasori No Danna yeah?"

"Sakura took on Sasori of the Red Sand and survived?" Arnya said sounding even more surprised than Deidara.

"A little girl and an old lady yeah?" Deidara was dumbfounded.

Arnya just shook her head and turned to her partner, "We need to get back to base. Catching Naruto is not going to happen right now, and you've got no arms."

"What we need to do first is find my arm yeah." he said as they wriggled backwards out of their hiding place.

"Good Work Neji." Came a sickeningly familiar voice, Arnya sighed she didn't feel like she could handle any more reunion parties today.

Deidara and Arnya turned to see four shinobi standing together.

"Gai-Sensei." Arnya said regarding the tall dark haired man.

"Arnya?"

"You guessed right, Lee, Ten-ten, Neji. How've you all been?" Sarcasm dripped heavily from every syllable.

Team Gai stood awestruck by the sight of their former companion.

"Did you say Gai yeah?"

"Yeah, this is the one that beat Shark Boy." Arnya sighed.

Deidara looked pointedly at her, "I can't really fight like this, and do you really feel like taking on an entire team by yourself yeah."

"Truthfully. No."

"Give me a kunai yeah."

Arnya was confused by pulled a kunai out of her pouch anyways. Deidara took it in his mouth and said something to her,

"Getonmybackyeah." the words stringing to together and muffled by the kunai.

"WHAT!" Arnya said very much against the idea of piggybacking with Deidara.

"Justdoityeah."

"Whatever." Arnya rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around Deidara's neck, her legs around his waist.

Once she was on him Deidara took off leaping into the trees. Ten-ten tossed a few shuriken at them which he easily deflected with his kunai.

He continued to run, Arnya holding onto him trying not to fall. Deidara managed to avoid several more of Ten-ten's expertly thrown weapons, and Lee's kicks. Until they reached the body of the clay bird. He spit the kunai away and muttered something to Arnya.

Arnya jumped off Deidara's back as he leaned forwards and chewed off a bit of the clay.

He stepped in front of the bird as his body began to swell Arnya did a number of speedy hand seals and out of sight of the leaf shinobi left behind a shadow clone as she moved to join the real Deidara out of range of the on coming explosion.

As the two watched from the branches above Clone Deidara exploded. A giant fireball moved threatening to engulf all of Team Gai.

Arnya felt something in that moment she didn't expect. Sadness, she watched four people she had once cared deeply for running for their lives and she was part of their doom.

The air suddenly thickened the way it had when Deidara lost his arm. The black vortex ate away at the fire sucking it in and protecting Team Gai from harm. Arnya secretly felt relieved that she didn't have to watch them die like that.

"Damn it yeah." Deidara grumbled, "whatever, we should go find my arm yeah."


	11. Hotsprings

Deidara and Arnya retraced their steps. They followed the path back to the cave scouring the ground for Deidara's severed arm.

"You'll be able to tell easily if it's mine. There'll be a mouth on the hand yeah."

"Deidara, how many body part are you expecting to see out here?" Arnya asked sarcastically, "Wait. You have mouths on your hands?"

"Um… yeah…"

"Interesting." Arnya said

"And what does that mean yeah?"

Arnya actually snorted out a small laugh, "I just have this mental image of you trying to feed your hand."

"… Seriously, yeah… that's where your mind goes?"

"Where did you expect it to?" Arnya asked, then she saw his eyebrow raise and a little smirk appear on his lips. "Don't answer that."

Deidara snickered evilly and went back to searching for his missing appendage. They continued searching for another few hours when they heard voices.

A rather excited sounding man was talking, "Wow, it looks like Deidara got it to. Blew himself up by the looks of it. There're probably body parts scattered all around here." the voice was then laughing somewhat maniacally, "I wonder what happened to their pretty little subordinate."

"Let go of my hand you little shit yeah." Deidara said angrily walking around a large tree, to see the plant like guy and a tall man, dressed all in black with an orange spirally mask on his face, spiky dark hair poking over the edge of it.

"Who said I was his subordinate? That wasn't part of my deal." Arnya said walking just behind Deidara.

"Oh Deidara, you're alive." The masked man sounded almost disappointed to see Deidara still breathing.

"What happened to the Jinchuuriki?" Zetsu dark half was talking.

"Don't look at us we did our job yeah." Deidara said simply, he glanced back at Arnya who shrugged her shoulders blankly.

"Well at least you're in one piece… oops." this guy seemed to know just how to push Deidara's buttons.

"Tobi, even the Buddha loses patience when insulted a third time yeah. Another word and I'll be deciding how you die." Deidara threatened.

"You're just going to bomb me right?" Tobi replied with a playful shrug.

Arnya smirked, "That was the third time."

Deidara jumped high into the air and projected himself towards Tobi. Before Tobi could process what had just happened Deidara caught him in his ankles and forced him to the ground. His legs constricting around the masked lunatic's throat.

"Death by Suffocation hmm." Deidara announced as Tobi struggled to break free. Arnya and Zetsu stood by watching.

"We should probably stop him before Tobi actually suffocates." Zetsu white half said.

"Good luck with that." Arnya said deciding getting in the way of Deidara when he was angry was something she wanted to avoid.

Deidara however seemed to have exhausted his frustration and released Tobi. Tobi crawled away gasping for air, Arnya stepped towards Deidara who was struggling to get back on his feet without his arms. She grabbed the front of his cloak and pulled him up. Once on his feet his stumbled forward a bit and his face fell into her chest.

"I'M SORRY UN!" He yelled out forcing himself upright.

Arnya's eyes had changed from smouldering gray to deadly crimson as she stared at him. Deidara's visible blue eye widened as he saw what was coming next. However her sharingan didn't changed as he expected it to. It remained the circular pattern with the three curved marks around the rim.

Arnya then rolled her eyes and allowed them to fade back to gray. 'Whatever." she sighed and turned to pick up Deidara's arm, "We have your damn arm. Can we go back to base now?"

"Yeah, lets go." He said as the four began walking.

"You're Arnya right?" Tobi asked running up and shoving Deidara over to walk beside her.

"That's me." Arnya said barely acknowledging the man,

"I'm Tobi!" He said proudly, "Tobi is a Good Boy."

"That's good for Tobi." Arnya said walking a little faster not really wishing to talk to this guy.

"Does Arnya want to be Tobi's friend?" Tobi asked eagerly.

Arnya froze. She didn't know what this guys power was. Insulting or refusing this obviously unstable person could get her in trouble.

Deidara saved her by shoulder checking Tobi back and retaking his place next to Arnya. "Leave the girl alone you fool, yeah."

Tobi seemed like he was about respond until Zetsu held up a hand to silence him.

The group continued on in silence. With the exception of Tobi giggling stupidly to himself every now and then.

**X~X**

Night began to fall and Tobi began complaining about being tired. Deidara was gritting his teeth obviously wishing he could turn around and punch Tobi. Zetsu's white half sighed, "There's a hot spring resort near here we can stop for the night."

Tobi jumped around excitedly, Deidara growled under his breath. Though Arnya felt like she could easily relax in a hot spring and sleep for a while she glanced at her partner and sighed, "We can't, We need to get Deidara back to the base so we can do something about his arms."

Deidara smiled at her, "I'm not worried about my arms yeah." he whispered to her, "Kakuzu can stitch them on and I'm not bleeding anymore, I just don't want to spend the night sharing a room with Tobi yeah."

"Then get a separate room."

"You got that much money on you? And Kakuzu would kick both our asses yeah." When Arnya looked confused, Deidara added, "He's our treasurer and is completely money obsessed yeah."

Arnya sighed, "Alright, we'll keep going then."

"Well…" Deidara began slyly, "I could just share with you yeah." a little smirk played across his lips.

"Wipe the stupid look off your face and fine."

"Really yeah?" The smirk grew

Arnya snorted, "Don't expect anything to happen. And if you try anything Kakuzu will be sewing your balls back on as well." her hand moved towards her kunai pouch.

"You think you'd be able to do that yeah?"

"How would you stop me? Going to flap your sleeves at me?"

"Point taken yeah." Deidara said, "Any way stopping will make Tobi quit whining yeah."

"Are we stopping or not?" Zetsu's dark half spoke.

"Yes we are."

"YAY! HOTSPRING!" Tobi squealed happily and bounded in front of Arnya and Deidara towards the little building they were nearing.

"Oh boy." Arnya sighed, this may be a long night.

Tobi stopped and waited for the other outside the resort building. Arnya stopped Zetsu and Deidara before they got too close. "Um, these cloaks make us a bit obvious don't they?"

"Good thinking." Zetsu white half said as he pulled off his cloak.

Deidara looked awkwardly at Arnya, "Um… no arms yeah."

Arnya rolled her eyes and stepped up to him and quickly unbuttoned his cloak. She then removed her own and rolled all three up. Tobi came over and offered her a pack to stuff them into.

**X~X**

Once the group looked less conspicuous (There was no way around Zetsu's plant like appearance, Deidara's complete lack of arms and Tobi's orange mask) Arnya approached an old man working behind the check in desk.

"Can we have two rooms for one night?"

"Two beds in each?" he asked eyeing her strange companions.

"That's right."

"Will you be using the springs tonight?"

"I believe we will."

"You are aware that it's mixed bathing?"

Arnya face went completely blank. She looked over her shoulder at Deidara who was smirking at her, Zetsu who was avoiding her eyes, and a completely oblivious Tobi who was looking at the tacky colourful paintings on the walls. She allowed her eyes to change to crimson as she tried to stare all of them down. It had little effect. Deidara went on smirking at her, Zetsu rolled his eyes, the only one that seemed mildly intimidated was Tobi, who cringed at the sight of the Sharingan.

She turned her eyes back to their usual charcoal colour before turning with a sigh towards the desk manager, "That's fine."

**X~X**

Arnya couldn't help but snicker as she listened to Deidara cursing from the men's change room. Apparently Tobi was attempting to help Deidara out of his clothes.

She wrapped the towel tightly around herself before stepping out to the bath. She hurried into the water not wanting to give any of the men time to see her properly. She was relieved to see that the bath was empty. She slipped off her towel leaving it close to the edge and slid her body into the steamy waters.

The room to the men's change room opened and she looked away respectfully as Zetsu walked out towards the water. He stepped into the water and went to the side opposite of Arnya. She looked up and saw that only Zetsu's white half was there and the fly-trap like thing was gone.

"My black half doesn't like these types of things." he said simply

"So you can separate yourself, and take off the green part."

"Yeah, but your lucky you don't have to see it happen. It's not pretty."

"I wouldn't imagine so." she was actually happy that it was just Zetsu's white half out here. She didn't feel like dealing with the dark side's abrasive personality. She felt it may clash with her own.

"TOBI FUCK OFF YEAH!" Deidara stormed out of the change room and walked into the water. He had removed the scope from his left eye and took his hair out of the ponytail. Arnya couldn't help but look at him out of the corner of her eyes as he moved into the water. His startling blue eyes found her and he smirked when he realized she was watching him, "Like what you see yeah?" he asked.

"Get over yourself I was wondering how gross your arms look." She slid a little further into the steamy waters trying to hide herself.

Deidara came and rested against the edge of the spring right near her. The sly little smile still plastered on his face.

Tobi finally came out and all three of them looked around. All curious to see what was hidden under that spirally mask of his. All three were sorely disappointed to see that Tobi had left it on.

Tobi settled himself in the water, and announced happily "So warm. It's perfect."

Deidara rolled his eyes and turned back towards Arnya, "Are they any places like this out where you're from yeah?" he was trying to start some form of conversation so that the four of them wouldn't be just sitting there awkwardly.

"Not in the village I woke up in, but there were a few good spots in Konoha." Arnya replied in a monotone, not wanting to give Deidara anymore information about herself than she already had.

"Village you woke up in?" Zetsu asked

"Well I can't really say I was raised there," Arnya shrugged, "I ended up there when I was nine, left when I was twelve."

"So you spent three years in Konoha yeah?"

"Yes, I left there when I was fifteen."

"Why?" Tobi had actually managed to make himself pay attention

Arnya didn't answer and sunk herself deeper into the waters so that only her nose us was still out.

"We'll find out eventually, yeah."

She pulled her face back up enough so that her mouth was useable.

"Fine, After Sasuke Uchiha left Naruto and Sakura and pretty much everyone else wanted to go after him. Except me. I was angry, so many people almost died to go after him and he just left us. And one of my friends, my team-mate was killed for Sasuke's sake. I flat out told Sakura and Naruto that going after Sasuke was pointless. He left the village and was a missing-nin it wasn't worth it to go after someone who obviously didn't give a fuck."

"And they didn't like that yeah?"

"Not one bit."

"_How can you say that Arnya?" Sakura was staring daggers at the older girl, "He's our friend, and a member of this village, we have to go after him."_

"_He doesn't deserve that Sakura," Arnya retorted, "Choji and Neji are lucky to be alive. Had the medical corp. been five minutes longer they'd both be dead. Kiba, Shikamaru and Lee would have died if Temari, Kankorou and Gaara hadn't come. Sukai is dead. And Sasuke beat the living hell out of Naruto. He almost killed him." _

_Naruto jumped to the defence, "But he didn't that must mean something Arnya. He won I was out cold and he walked away."_

"_Exactly Naruto he walked away and left all of us." Arnya's onyx eyes burned with anger, "He's not worth it." _

"_How can you say that?" Naruto said, "When you two were so close. He really…_

"Arnya?" Tobi was waving a hand in front of her face

Arnya snapped back to reality and stared at the orange swirl in front of her. "I was just thinking."

"About what?" Tobi was uncomfortably close to her.

"Nothing that concerns you Tobi." She said pushing him back, "I'm getting out, all of you look in a different direction."

Before pulling herself onto the cold rock she checked to make sure all three of her travelling companions were turned away. She lifted her body out of the water, picked up her towel and wrapped it securely around her, "I'm done, you can look now." she said as she slipped into the woman's change room.

**X~X**

She began redressing, she had just managed to get her panties and bra on when a dripping wet Deidara slipped into the room. A towel was wrapped around his waist, and Arnya had to grudgingly admit to herself he looked rather good, despite his lack of arms. His blonde hair hung loosely clinging to his neck and shoulders. One spectacularly blue eye visible behind the bangs hanging in his face. Water droplets rolled off his well muscled chest and abs. The only reason the man standing in front of her couldn't be considered completely sexy was the stumps that were once his arms.

Her eyes passed over something on the right side of his chest. Just above his heart.

"What is that?" she asked, without thinking she walked over to him and brushed the tips of her fingers over it. It looked like a mouth, that was stitched closed. Marking surrounding it that Arnya assumed were part of a jutsu to keep it there.

He shuddered lightly under her gentle touch, "It's something for my art yeah. If I unstitch it and put clay in it, I'll explode yeah."

"You have a built in suicide device."

"Pretty much, the blast has a good ten kilometre radius. Ultimate destruction yeah." he looked down at her and felt a slight twitch in his lower region. Her black hair pooled around her shoulders. Wet strands sticking to her forehead. Her onyx eyes were softer than he'd yet seen them. Her well sized chest was covered by a simple strapless black bra. The rest of her was completely open to his eyes save for the area hidden by the matching black panties she wore. He felt himself salivate slightly as his perverted mind switched into action and he pictured what it would be like to press that lovely little body against his own.

Arnya seemed to snap back to reality, she removed her hand from his chest and glared up at him. "What do you want Deidara?"

"Oh, well…" he began feeling somewhat awkward, "I can't exactly dress myself, and I refuse to let Tobi do it yeah."

"How'd you get the towel on?"

"Zetsu…"

"I see," she said , she saw the pleading look in his eye and sighed, "Get Tobi to bring your clothes over here." Deidara grinned and left the room as she turned away pulling her shirt back on. Black leather tightened around her breast, while simple body mesh fell from it covering her middle. The shirt was sleeveless, held up by leather ties that she twisted around the back of her neck. A thigh length black shirt came next, followed by fishnet shorts that stuck out from underneath the skirt's hem. Knee height black shoes followed.

Tobi and Deidara returned, Tobi carrying an armful of clothes, "Now get out Tobi yeah."

Tobi retreated leaving Arnya and Deidara standing alone. One of them wearing only a towel.

"Alright lets get this over with." she muttered approaching him. She pulled a fishnet shirt over his shoulders. Trying to be careful of his injuries. Next she got him into a deep blue cut off shirt that left part of his chest and his middle exposed. She grabbed his boxers and sighed while he desperately tried to hold in a smirk.

She undid the towel around his hips and let it fall to the ground. Deidara cooperated and stepped one foot at a time into the legs of his boxers as she pulled them onto him. "Don't look, don't look, don't look" she thought consistently keeping her gaze on the Akatsuki ring on her finger.

When she finally had his pants on him she stood to face him. Her cheeks had gone red, and she refused to look him in the eye. He could no longer hold in the smirk. It broke on his face, "Thank you very much yeah."

"Your welcome no get the fuck out." and she shoved him out the door.

Arnya stepped into her room and saw Deidara already sprawled across one of the beds staring up at the ceiling. She curled up in her own bed, and fell asleep almost instantly.


	12. Couldnt think of a name

_So I Realized that Deidara is staring to get a little OOC, but I don't care. I like the way this is going XD_

**X~X**_  
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Arnya blinked her eyes as sunlight poured into the room. She sat up and stretched out. For the first time in a while she had slept peacefully. No blood, no sword, no little girl, no screams. She couldn't remember what she had actually dreamed about but that didn't matter. She looked around the room to see Deidara sitting on his bed smirking at her.

"Had good dreams yeah?"

"Don't remember." she said sounding honestly perplexed.

"Really, if I had had a dream like that one I'd want to remember yeah."

"And how the hell do you know what I was dreaming?"

"Oh I don't know exactly, but from what you were saying it sounded wonderful yeah."

Arnya's eyes went wide, "What was I saying?" _(I kinda picture her going O_O)_

"There was a few moans, then my name, then another moan, then you said and these are exact words 'harder Deidara please.' yeah"

Arnya's face went redder than her Sharingan, as she racked her brain to try and remember what she had dreamt. There was no way those words actually left her mouth. She closed her eyes trying to see exactly what she had seen last night.

There were patchy images of a tall blonde man hovering over her. Soft lips pressing against her own, a hand gently running through her black ringlets. A tongue sliding up her thigh getting closer to her wet core. Blue eyes locked onto hers. A gentle moan into those amazing lips. A highly skilled tongue penetrating her mouth and rubbing seductively against her own. Long strands of hair tickling her chest as he kissed down her body.

Arnya snapped her eyes open. She stared over at Deidara. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face. "Oh my god." she said sounding absolutely mortified.

"You said that at some point too yeah." his smirk widened and Arnya launched a pillow that missed. Deidara started laughing his ass off.

"Oh come on yeah. You can't say you didn't enjoy that dream."

"Go die in a dark deep hole Psycho Bomber, I meant what I said before. I'm not entirely sure if Deidara doubles as a girl's name."

"You won't do that. Those parts are too valuable to you yeah." he continued laughing until he felt the heat of her glare. He stood and headed to the door, "Well whenever you want to make that dream a reality just let me know yeah." he slipped through the door as another pillow flew towards him.

Arnya gathered her things and met her companions in the lobby where she checked out. The group walked on in silence. Deidara periodically giving Arnya sly little grins.

**X~X**

After a few hours they finally reached the drab gray compound of the Akatsuki base. The first thing Arnya noticed walking into the sitting room was that they had already fixed the Deidara shaped hole in the wall.

"Deidara what the fuck happened to you?" the purple eyed Hidan asked as Deidara entered the room, "you called her a plaything again didn't you?"

Arnya laughed out and smirked at Deidara, who rolled his eyes at Hidan, "The Copy-Ninja happened yeah."

"How?" came a voice, in the corner of the room was Itachi sitting alone with a book in his hand.

"Mangekyo Sharingan," Arnya answered, "he used Kamui."

"How did Kakashi awaken Mangekyo?"

"No fucking clue." Arnya plopped onto a couch beside Kisame.

"Where's Kakuzu yeah?" Deidara asked

Said masked man appeared behind Deidara, "Right here."

"I need you to reattach my arms yeah."

"Where are they?"

Arnya reached into the pack she had set on her knees. She unrolled her Akatsuki cloak, in which she had wrapped Deidara's severed limbs to keep them from harm. She handed the appendages to Kakuzu, who then looked at Deidara's stumps, "I'll need to use a transplant on this one," he indicated Deidara's right arm, "Sasori had someone he was working on turning into a puppet, we can use one of his."

"Transplant? What about my hands yeah?"

"I only need to transplant the elbow calm down."

Deidara and Kakuzu walked off down the hallway towards Sasori's room. Arnya yawned and stretched out her arms.

"So what do you think of our little organization so far?" Kisame asked

"Did you really expect me to get a good first impression by leaving me with Deidara?" Arnya said

"Ha-ha, good point."

"OW FUCKING HELL YEAH!" Deidara's scream echoed through the base, Arnya, Kisame, Hidan and Tobi, started laughing. Itachi let a small smile tug at his lips and Zetsu had already left.

"Curiosity has gotten the better of me." Arnya said and she walked towards the sound. She knocked on a bedroom door and heard "Come in yeah."

She opened the door to see Deidara sitting on his bed, his shirt off. One arm partially attached. Kakuzu was standing beside him feeding threads from his hand into Deidara's skin.

"Ow, fuck Kakuzu, why does this hurt more than losing them yeah?"

"Because you're a big baby, now shut up."

"So why are you here yeah?" he said turning his attention to Arnya.

"I got curious." she said with a simple shrug, she sat at a desk chair across from the bed.

"Or, were you coming to continue that little dream yeah?" Deidara grinned again, and Kakuzu looked at him confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh our new member had a very interesting little dream last night yeah."

"One more word and he'll be reattaching you head."

But Kakuzu persisted, "Dream?" he was looking at Arnya now.

"It's nothing, just a nightmare." She replied

"Harsh, yeah"

"Whatever my curiosity has been sated I'm going." with that she got up and left the room. She debated going and sitting with the others when she decided she'd rather take a shower.

**X~X**

She walked across the hall from Deidara's room into her own. She snatched up a towel and stripped off her tight clothes, while walking into the bathroom, leaving a trail of garments. She turned the taps and stepped into the wonderfully hot water. Trying to clear her mind.

Images of last night's dream crept into her mind. Deidara's smirk hovered in her vision. Heat bubbled inside her and she wasn't sure if it was anger or desire, she felt his lips pressing against hers. She could almost fell the sensation of his hand running down her body, the mouths gently nipping at her sensitive skin. His hair brushing against her body as he kissed around her chest.

Arnya shook her head. "NO!," she thought, "Not going to happen, the last time you let some one that close. No don't think about that either. Good god girl what have you gotten yourself into with this organization?"

She stepped out of the shower. She dried herself off as she stepped into her bedroom. And picked out some comfortable clothes.

**X~X**

Kakuzu finally finished with Deidara's arms. The elbow of his right arm was dark and shrivelled. Definably not ideal, but he'd take what he could get. He went to go to the living room, when he noticed Arnya's door slightly ajar. He peeked in and saw her drying herself off with a towel. His eyes widened as he watched the towel fall to the floor leaving her completely exposed. His eyes scanned her body, her curvy hips, her full chest, her flat stomach. Her hair fell in messy damp strands down her back, it looked soft, he wanted to touch the curly locks and hold that body tightly against his own. His groin twitched persistently as he watched her slip into a pair of red panties and snap on a matching bra.

"Deidara what are you doing?" a voice came form behind him, he jumped and turned to see Itachi staring at him.

"Um… nothing, I just…" he trailed off unsure of how to explain his peeping.

"You were watching Arnya get dressed…" Itachi said. Deidara thanked god that Itachi was talking quietly, or else Arnya would have already been out there beating the hell out of him.

"Uh… yeah." Deidara put on a guilty face.

"Back to the living room, now." Itachi sighed and gently pushed Arnya's door closed.

A small snap of a closing door made Arnya jump. She had just pulled on a simple black t-shirt and blue pants, when the sound came. She turned and saw no one inside the room. And she didn't sense any chakra signatures near by so she concluded that Deidara was probably just closing his own door.

**X~X**

She walked into the living room and saw Deidara look quickly up at her then down again. He was moulding clay in his hands. A few little spiders were already sitting on the table in front of him.

"Arnya." Itachi was giving her a curious glance.

"What?"

"Did Kakashi have Mangekyo before you left Konoha?"

"Not that I ever saw, and his best friend is already dead so I don't see how he could have done it."

"You know how to awaken Mangekyo?"

"Yeah, I managed to get a little bit of information out of your brother. He told me what you had said about it."

"Did he ever awaken it?"

"No, from what Naruto told me about his fight with him, he was going to, but decided to let Naruto live."

"Do you have Mangekyo?"

"No,"

"Hey Arnya maybe Itachi knows who's name it was, yeah" Deidara suggested

"Name?" Itachi asked, panic bubbling inside him.

"Kallia," Arnya said, "It's a girl from a nightmare I've been having for as long as I can remember."

"What happens in the nightmare." it was Kisame who asked this time, Arnya looked around and saw all of the men looking curiously at her.

Arnya sighed, she might as well explain. "Not a lot. There's blood, and screams. I'm young in the dream, maybe eight or nine. And I'm always trying to protect a little girl. And a woman, I scream, and scream but she always dies. And the girl gets past me. And I scream some more. And then right before the sword cuts into her I wake up."

"She fell asleep while she and I were waiting for Sasori to finish with the Kazekage's brother. She screamed a lot, and said a name. yeah"

"So after nine years I know one name. Kallia. I don't whether that's the little girl or the woman though."

Itachi stared at Arnya. His mind in turmoil, he remembered Kallia, Arnya's little sister was four-years-old when he killed her.

"_MOTHER!" the terrified shriek rang out from down the dark hallway. Itachi sliced his ANBU sword through the woman that was desperately trying to hold him back from her daughters. Her husband lay dead in the kitchen. There was a small bang Itachi turned and saw a small girl running towards her mother's body. Her older sister screaming at her from down the corridor. "KALLIA!, STOP!"_

_Itachi raised the sword and caught the little girl by the neck. Blood spurted from the wound soaking the walls and splashing on his face. _

_The older sister. Arnya, Sasuke's friend. Ran towards her sister. Her own fate be damned as long as she could help the child. She tripped over her dead mothers out stretched hand. She looked over into the kitchen and saw her father's body soaked in crimson, staring towards her a look of everlasting horror upon his face. Tears sprouted from the child eyes as she watched the life leave Kallia._

"_Kallia, I'm sorry."_

"So Itachi do you know the name yeah?"

"No," Itachi lied, "I've never heard it." with that he got up and walked out of the building.

**X~X**

He headed towards a cluster of trees and sat back against one with a sigh. He thought about everything he had done to her. She watched as her family fell at his hands. He ripped away her memories and left her to fend for herself, alone in darkness.

And now here she was, with no other place to go to deal with the darkness, she joined the ranks of some of the most dangerous Shinobi in the world. He wished he knew what it was that made her leave the village she had left him in, and then Konoha. She and Sasuke were strangely alike, they had both lived alone and in turmoil. They both sought refuge and power in places no rational human being would want to be a part of. All because of Itachi.

Suddenly there was someone standing over him. He looked up and saw Arnya looking down at him. "I'm good at telling when someone is lying. You've heard the name before. Who was she?"

"There was a little girl in Konoha, Kallia Uchiha. She's dead, I killed her. I doubt it's the same person." he made sure his lie was more convincing this time.

"Why are you so familiar to me?" She asked, causing Itachi's eyes to widen a bit, "And don't tell me it's because I knew Sasuke. He was oddly familiar when I first met him too."

"I don't have any answers for you." he replied coldly

"I just want to know where I'm from. Who I am, is that so much to ask?" knowing she wasn't going to get an answer she left and returned to the compound.

A single tear ran down Itachi's face. He wished he could just tell her everything. But the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre had to remain hidden.

**X~X**

Arnya returned to the living room and sat down next to Kisame.

"Anything else you feel like sharing today?"

"Not particularly."

"Oh come on." Hidan said, "How about why you kicked Deidara through a fucking wall."

"They'll keep bugging until you tell them." Kakuzu said looking up at her over a few notebooks.

Arnya sighed, "Why does it matter?"

"It doesn't really, we're just curious." Kisame said

"Fine. If you absolutely want to know." Arnya resigned, "The village I lived in was horrible, no body there gave a damn about me, I was just some orphan that was dumped at their gates. They didn't want or need me there. When I was twelve I was walking around alone. Three guys came out of nowhere and attacked me. They were fifteen. They held me down forced me out of my clothes and raped me. When they first jumped out at me they were taunting me. Saying how they had a new plaything, something to entertain them for a while. That was also the day I activated my Sharingan and the first time I ever killed someone."

The entire room was silent. Itachi had returned and was standing in the door way in shock.

"One of them had a knife. I managed to get it out of his hands and I slit the throat of the one of top of me and stabbed his friends when the lunged at me. I ran home, cleaned off the blood, gathered my stuff and ran. I was outside freezing, and hungry when Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki found me near the gates of Konoha, they brought me to the hospital, and the Third Hokage, offered me a place in the village."

Everyone was staring at her. Deidara's mouth hung open in shock. He was regretting what he had said to her. Hidan suddenly became very interesting in a place on the wall. Kakuzu looked down at his books. While Kisame shuffled his feet awkwardly. Tobi began fidgeting with a piece of thread on his clothes. And Itachi walked out of the room again.

"I'm sorry, yeah." Deidara swallowed his pride, and gave her genuine apology for what he had said.

"It's not like you knew, or had any intention of doing something like that. I have tendency to over react." he gaze was straight ahead of her, unblinking. She seemed smaller, like she had shrunk herself into the couch trying to protect herself from the memory.

Deidara's mind started working. It explained why she got defensive and threatened him when he made any sexual comments towards her. He felt bad for her, that kind of think can screw a girl up. That added to her lack of memory and feelings of betrayal from the people in Konoha together to make a very dark, angry person. He was actually glad to know this though. He wanted to understand this girl, he felt that if he could break down her defences she could be a good person to be around.

Arnya glanced out a window, it was dark out, the moon spilling ghostly light onto the tree tops. "I'm going to bed." she announced as slipped out of the room. Leaving the men sitting in astonished silence.

"I wouldn't have guessed," Kakuzu muttered.

"Me either, she seems like the type that would be able to stop someone doing that to her." Kisame said

"It was before she had any training as a shinobi. She didn't know how to fight yet yeah." Deidara said.

**X~X**

Arnya lied on her bed staring at the ceiling. She didn't like telling them all this. But it was probably better if they knew. If they had some inkling of what she had lived through it might make living with them easier. It was probably for the best that they all understood each other, if one hides too much they isolate themselves. And Arnya was so sick of being alone. She sighed. Oddly enough the one place she may finally find refuge was with a bunch of S-Class criminals. With that thought she drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

"_Well look what we've got here boys." the tallest of the three spoke. He towered over Arnya who backed away her innocent gray eyes locked onto his malicious green ones. _

"_A new little plaything." The blue haired boy on his right said looking evilly down at Arnya's small retreating form. _

"_She'd be good entertainment for a little while." the third commented reaching forward to touch a strand of Arnya's dark curls_

"_Don't touch me." Arnya said, smacking his hand away. If they were going to hurt he she refused to just lie down and take it. She'd fight. _

"_Oh a fiery little one." and the tall boy grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back. The blue haired one was suddenly in front of her._

"_It's best if you don't struggle Hun, it'll only make it hurt more." his fingers brushed her face and Arnya snapped her teeth at them. He smacked her across the face with enough force to make Arnya head snap to the side. A large red print welted onto her pale skin and few tears leaked from her eyes. _

"_You should learn your place little girl." the last one of the trio brushed hair off her neck. She shivered uncomfortably as his cold hand touched her skin. _

_The leader of the pack let go of her wrist and pushed her face first onto the ground. Her dark eyes filled with tears and she felt him tugging at her pants. She kicked her legs desperately. One held her upper body down while another grabbed her ankles and forced her to stop moving. _

"Arnya?" her eyes flew open as she felt a hand gently touch her shoulder. Deidara was standing over her. His blue eyes filled with concern.

"Deidara?" she muttered still unsure what was happening.

"You were screaming in your sleep again yeah."

"I was?" she sat up and looked over. Her door was open, Kisame, Itachi and Tobi were all in the door way staring at her.

"There were no words this time, yeah." Deidara sat down next to her, "You sounded terrified yeah."

"It was a different dream, it was about those guys." she said staring at the floor.

"Do you ever have good dreams yeah?" Deidara was trying to make her smile.

She grinned a little bit, "I did the other night." the she realized what she said and cupped her hand over her mouth her eyes wide.

Deidara raised an eyebrow and smirked, "I knew it yeah."

"What is she talking about?" Itachi asked stepping into the room.

"She dreamt about me the other night yeah."

Arnya's face went red again. Her dark eyes had become circles of pure shock (O_O).

"I don't even want to know." Kisame said simply, "I'm going to make breakfast." and he left.

Itachi's eyebrows raised and he walked out of the room, Tobi following him down the hall, leaving Arnya and Deidara sitting alone.

"Don't you dare read anything into that." she growled at him, she tried to look angry and threatening, but couldn't quite muster it. She was still shaken up.

Deidara saw the fear and vulnerability in her and decided not to push her any farther at that moment. "Read into what yeah?" he said kindly. He gave her a warm smile and went to the kitchen.

She couldn't help but smile, as she watched Deidara walk away. "Maybe he's not so bad." she thought as her door closed. She pulled her self off the bed and got dressed. Pulling on her usual leather and fishnet shirt, with a simple pair of black pants. Before heading towards the kitchen.

**X~X**

She could smell bacon cooking as she sat between Deidara and Itachi at the table. Itachi looked at her with concern that only deepened when he saw her and Deidara smile at each other. And Deidara's hand gently brush over her shoulder. Itachi felt this irrational protectiveness over the girl. He was the cause of her pain, he would protect her from any other dangers. And he did not trust Deidara.

"Food's done." Kisame announced bring in a plate of bacon and eggs.

Arnya looked at the food hungrily, "You look like you're fucking starving." Hidan said from across the table

"It's been three years since I've had a home cooked breakfast." Arnya said loading her plate with bacon and began eating, "Or any other home cooked meal for that matter." she muffled through her mouth full.

Deidara laughed, and began eating his own breakfast.

"Arnya shouldn't talk with her mouth full." Tobi said

Arnya swallowed her bacon and muttered, "Tobi shouldn't talk at all." Deidara snorted and started choking on his bacon, Itachi grinned a bit, and Kisame fell out of his chair laughing.

Tobi looked at the four of them completely bewildered, "What?"

Arnya smacked Deidara in the back to try and help him, and looked down at Kisame, "It wasn't that funny."

"Yes, yes it was." Kisame said sitting back up.

"It really was." Deidara said having finally managed to swallow his food.

"It was rather entertaining." Itachi said the grin still lingering on his lips.

"What was? Tobi is confused"

"Never mind Tobi." Arnya said starting on her eggs.

**X~X**

Everyone but Tobi, who hadn't eaten at all, finished their breakfast when a voice came from the sitting room, "Everyone in here now."

Arnya looked at Itachi and Deidara confused, "It's Pain-sama yeah."

The group walked into the living room. Arnya sat on the couch between Kisame and Hidan. And looked up at the heavily pierced, orange haired Akatsuki leader. Konan stood behind him wearing the same demure almost sad looking expression as the last time Arnya has seen her.

"As we've lost Sasori, we are in need of a new member." Pain said regarding each one of them with his eyes, "Tobi, will be joining out ranks."

There was a bang and everyone looked around to see Deidara had slammed his head onto the table in front of him. Arnya and Kisame burst out with laughter, and Pain rolled his eyes disapprovingly

"Well it's good you're so excited about this Deidara, because guess who your new partner is."

Deidara's head shot back up, his eyes wide. He looked horror stricken. "No." he said simply

"Yes, he will be working with you and Arnya from now on."

"So I'm still working with Psycho-Bomber?"

"Yes, from what I've heard the two of you work well together I'd like to keep it that way."

"Well at least there's something good, yeah."

"We work well together?"

"First of all you're both alive, and from what Zetsu told me, you were the one who pulled Deidara out of Kamui so he wouldn't lose his head, searched for his arm with him, helped him function without them, and kept them safe by wrapping them in your Akatsuki cloak." Pain listed his reasons, "I'd say the two of you make a good enough team."

"Lies," Deidara said, "You just want her there so that I don't end up blowing Tobi up yeah."

"If that's my job, you should fire me now."

Kisame laughed again, "I definably like this girl." he thought as he clutched his sides.

Deidara smiled at her, and she had a sly, almost evil little smirk on her face. He once again felt a little twitch down there, and inwardly screamed at himself to stop thinking like that. For now at least picturing her like that was getting him absolutely no where.

"I doubt shed be able to stop him anyways," Hidan suddenly said, "All she's proven herself good for so far, is saving Deidara's sorry ass and getting her ass kicked by the copy-ninja and Kyuubi kid."

The room went silent as everyone watched for Arnya's reactions. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Hey Hidan." she said, turning to face him her eyes still closed.

"What?" he looked over and she opened her eyes. Her sharingan blazed as she locked her gaze onto Hidan's. His eyes went wide and suddenly his expression went completely blank and he stared off into space.

"What did you do?" Pain asked tentatively

"Nothing he's just stuck in a small dark room with no way out but a small window no grown human being could ever fit through." She said with a smirk, "Once he finds his way out the genjutsu will break."

"How's he supposed to find his way out?"

"Well I assume, unless he's a complete idiot, he'd find the little trap door he's standing on eventually."

"You should probably break the jutsu." Kakuzu said, making Arnya snort out with laughter.

Arnya reached over and gave Hidan a good hard smack in the back of the head. The haze that had over taken his eyes vanished and he glared at Arnya.

"What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Enough!" Pain yelled before Arnya could snap back. "Hidan and Kakuzu, the two of you will head out as soon as possible to find the two-tails. The rest of you try not to kill each other." with that Pain and Konan were gone in a puff of smoke.

"Great," Kisame said sarcastically, "Now we have two people we have to avoid eye contact with."

Deidara a grunting noise of displeasure and produced a handful of clay he began moulding.

"I don't use my sharingan unless I don't have any other option, or I'm really trying to scare someone." Arnya said simply, "for the most part having it feels like a cheat."

"What do you mean?" Itachi asked

"Well first of all I don't know how I have it. It's far from the most powerful one I've known. Kakashi's is stronger, Sasuke's was less developed than mine when I met him but by now he's probably become more proficient with it. And well you have Mangekyo and are a sadist," this last statement caused Deidara to snort out a laugh and grin up towards Arnya. She smiled back and continued, "Mine is nothing more than fully developed sharingan that I only use, when I feel like I have to. Or to have my own occasional sadist moments and stick someone in a genjutsu for a while. That really only happens to people who are dumb enough to intentionally piss me off."

"So I should be counting myself lucky I haven't ended up in you genjutsu yet, yeah"

"Not really. I prefer to cause physical harm, as opposed to being a mental rapist." she said, giving Itachi a quick glance.

"Are you calling me a mental rapist?"

"I was still in Konoha when you and Kisame here, showed up." She said simply, "I remember Kakashi and Sasuke being hospitalized for weeks. And when they woke up from what they told me, I've concluded that you're a complete mind terrorist."

Deidara got up and left the room so he could burst out laughing.


	13. Tobi Put Your Pants Back On

Arnya glanced out the window and noted the sunny skies. The trees blowing in a gentle breeze. She pulled herself off the couch and went to retrieve her novel from her bedroom. A thick book, filled with short stories.

She went outside, and felt the cool air hit her face, the wind blowing her dark ringlets around. She found a nice place underneath a tree and settled herself in the roots, opening to her page.

Deidara looked up from his clay to stare out the window. He saw Arnya nestled by a tree with a paperback in her hands. In that moment while he watched her, the sun caught in her raven hair, that the gentle breeze blew around her pale face. Her deep onyx eyes focused on her page. Her small body curled up cat like underneath her. She seemed so peaceful, so normal. Deidara had only seen a brief glimpse of the side once, at the hot springs. In this moment she was so simple in her beauty, every small action she made captivated him. Whether it be reaching up to brush a strand of hair away, or simply turning the page of her book, he was drawn right in. The artist in him pictured her in a painting of sorts. The colours surrounding her, the light green of the grass, the dark green of the leafy canopy, the yellow of the burning sun. a gentle red for her lips, a deep gray for her wide eyes. Deidara smirked inwardly "Maybe Danna's eternal beauty thing had it's merits after all yeah."

This story was about vampires. Arnya had always been a little strange like that. She had a thing for the gruesome, dark creatures of the night. She was just getting into the story, as the dark, handsome antagonist bloodsucker was approaching his young victim when she heard a shout behind her. She turned to see Tobi running from the house. His hands up in the air. He screamed out excitedly "TOBI IS A GOOD BOY!" Arnya rolled her eyes completely prepared to ignore him until she saw him do something, that would leave her mind scarred permanently.

"Damn it Tobi, yeah." Deidara muttered angrily. The masked freak had suddenly burst in and ruined the beautiful scene centered around that fascinating girl. "Wait what's he doing now yeah?"

"TOBI WHAT THE FUCK?" Arnya yelled at him in alarm. Tobi had transcended his pants and put them on his head. Arnya probably would have laughed it off if the idiot hadn't pulled his boxers off with them.

She closed her book. Walking at a faster pace than usual to get back inside. Tobi ran around completely exposed still screaming to the heavens above about how he was a 'good boy'.

Arnya remained silent and unblinking as she entered the living room. She must have looked shell shocked because Kisame asked her, "What's wrong?"

"I uh… can you do me favour?" she asked sitting on the couch beside him

"What do you need?"

"Can you go outside and make Tobi put his pants back on please?"

Kisame bit his lip forcing himself not to laugh out. He looked over and saw Deidara wearing a similar expression of pure horror and had to leave before he lost it completely.

"Just so you know," Deidara began slowly, "Not all men, look that…"

"Gross?"

"Yeah."

Their eyes met and suddenly the two of them burst out in insane laughter. Deidara clutched at his sides unable to breathe properly. Arnya had fallen onto her side on the couch her ribs aching. They were just beginning to take deep breaths and settle themselves, when they heard Kisame yell from outside. "DAMN IT TOBI, JUST PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THAT!"

The outburst sent both Arnya and Deidara into a new fit of laughter. Deidara falling off his chair while Arnya rolled off the couch.

Itachi walked in and saw them both killing themselves on the floor. "What happened?" he asked giving them the strangest of looks, when once again Kisame bellowed from outside. "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TOBI AT LEAST PUT YOUR BOXERS BACK ON!"

"What?" Itachi walked towards the window and looked out in time to see Kisame pleading with Tobi who was currently running around in circles, his most private parts hanging out swinging in the breeze _(I just want all my readers to take a moment to picture that and shudder :p) "_Wh-where are his pants?" Itachi said in almost a whisper.

"On his head." Arnya managed to gasp out, trying to catch her breath after her laughing fit.

"Why?"

"No fucking clue yeah." Deidara had calmed himself, and tried to avoid looking Arnya in the eye again knowing it would send him into another fit of hysterics.

"I was outside reading and he just came out. And bam they were on his head. And I was back inside."

Itachi turned around and Arnya had to fight hard to not start laughing at his expression. His mouth hung slightly open, one eye was opened wider than the other and he had one eyebrow cocked. (O_o) Arnya hadn't expected to ever see such a comical expression on Itachi's face. Everything she had ever heard about Sasuke's big brother suggested he was the ultimate of moody Uchiha.

Kisame came back inside looking exasperated. "I got him back into his boxers at the very least." he sighed.

"Why'd he take them off in the first place yeah?"

"I asked him. He said he didn't know. It seemed like a good idea at the moment apparently."

"Oh working with him is going to be fucking wonderful." Arnya lathered her words in deadly sarcasm. Deidara pouted a little bit as he watched her entire demeanour change back to the distant and guarded woman. He wished he could have had just another moment seeing her as simple, beautiful and warm. He wasn't disappointed to see the faint light in her eyes that had most certainly not been present before. This new shining meant they were getting to her, a brick had shifted in her protective walls. If Deidara could just pull that brick out her entire defence would shatter and she'd be open to him.

Deidara couldn't even explain to himself why it meant so much for him to get closer to her. He knew he wanted her. That much was obvious, but there was something more. Some strange emotional attachment he felt towards her, a need to be near, not just physically.

"I wonder what she feels yeah?" he thought.

A bang interrupted Deidara's thought as Tobi stumbled in the doorway. Thankfully his pants were back on. He skipped happily into the room but stopped when he saw the looks on all their faces. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing Tobi, I've just decided after my experience today that I'm a lesbian, that's all." Arnya said, "Do you think I can convince Konan?" she directed her question at the three men standing around her. All of which were wearing an expression of shock, she wasn't sure whether that was because they thought she was serious, or her making so many jokes was throwing them off.

Kisame broke first, a grin spreading across his shark like features enhancing his animalistic appearance. "Can I watch?"

"With a camera yeah."

"You're all morons." Itachi walked back to his bedroom.

"Your resemblance to Sasuke just became that much more." she called out at his retreating back.

"Tobi doesn't understand."

"And you never will yeah."

**X~X**_  
><em>

Arnya walked into the kitchen to try and find something for lunch. She ended up grabbing a bit of onigiri and was about to start making it when a hand snatched it away from her.

"No." Itachi was holding the food almost protectively.

"Why not."

"It's mine." and he put it up in a cupboard far too high for Arnya to be able to reach without scaling the counters.

"…" Arnya just stood there wondering what the big deal was when Kisame walked in.

His eyes went from the confused looking Arnya to the menacing looking Itachi, "You touched the onigiri didn't you?"

"I was unaware it was an offence." she said with a shrug and resuming her search for sustenance, she decided not to push the matter with Itachi any further. 72 hours of torture was not worth it for a little bit of food.

She ended up sitting at the table with a sandwich in her hand giving Itachi, who was eating a bowl of onigiri, angry glances between bites.

Deidara walked in and immediately noted the slight tension between the sharingan users. He saw Arnya eyes darting to his better than hers lunch and Itachi glaring at her and sighed, "You tried to eat his onigiri yeah?"

Arnya simply nodded still sulkily eating the almost stale bread and ham sandwich.

"I'm surprised he let you live yeah." he said sitting beside Arnya.

"Hey Blondie, are there any villages near here?"

"A few, we're right on the border between the hidden rain and the fire country yeah."

"Good, we're going to take a field trip later."

"Field trip yeah?"

"Mhmm, I'd like to get some new food, the bread is pretty much stale, and I need a new book."

"Fine, let me know when you want to go yeah." he got up and went to play with his clay

"Don't spend too much money." Came a drawling voice. Kakuzu and Hidan entered the room.

"I thought you two had to leave." Kisame said.

"We're going tomorrow." Kakuzu said, "The Nibi is located in the Hidden Cloud. It will take time to get there, we should be rested first."

"Makes sense." Arnya finished her sandwich and went to sit by Deidara in the living room. She watched him work with interest. He scooped the clay into his hand, the mouth would chew it, spit it back out and Deidara would mould it into it's shape.

"So, when you're hand chews the clay does it add your chakra to it?"

"Observant," he said flashing her a smile, "Yes, and it's my chakra that makes it explode, yeah."

"You put a lot of detail into these things." She said it with unusual kindness as she picked up one of the little birds, and looking closely at it, "I admire your meticulousness, but it seems somewhat pointless if your just going to blow it up."

Deidara smirked, if anyone else had made that comment they'd be in pieces before they knew what happened. But there was something about this girl, "I suppose that's true yeah, but my creations also come alive, the detail is more practical than meticulous yeah."

"I see, the extra detail in the feathers makes it easier for it to actually fly."

"Exactly yeah." he was quite pleased to have someone to sit and discuss his art with like this.

"So here's an awkward question, were you born with mouths on your hands, or did you add them for your art?"

"All natural yeah." he grinned and held up his hands so three big smiles flashed at her. She smiled back, she couldn't quite tell why but she felt the need to grin back when he smiled at her. He was infectious.

She couldn't deny that she enjoyed his company. So far he, Kisame and Sasori were the only people she seemed to get, or had gotten, along with. She disliked the way Hidan's eye drifted to her chest. Itachi was an Uchiha and her previous experience with them left her sour, Tobi was a pain in the ass, and Kakuzu she hadn't actually bothered talking to yet.

"How do you train them?"

"What do you mean yeah?"

"How do you make the mouths do what you want them to, like train them to chew the clay?"

"I've never actually thought about it yeah." Deidara shrugged, "They just do what I want, like the mouth on my face. It's natural instinct I guess yeah."

Arnya nodded and continued to observe his work. She still had one of his little birds in his hand when he did a quick hand seal. Suddenly the little white bird sprang to life a fluttered up to rest on her shoulder.

She looked at Deidara with a mix of alarm and doom, "If you do what I think you're going to, if I survive the blast, I will end your existence slowly, and painfully."

"I just wanted it to fly, I'm not…"

His sentence was cut off by Hidan. "Fan of pain honey? You could cut into me anytime," he smirked. Arnya was about to make a comment about masochism but was abruptly stopped by Hidan snaking his arm around her his hand resting deliberately on her chest.

Deidara watched a fire erupt in her dark eyes. What happened next went by so fast he wasn't entirely sure what he'd seen. As far as his eye could catch a kunai appeared in Arnya's hand, there was a big splash of blood and Hidan's head was rolling away.

Kakuzu and Itachi stood in shock as Arnya wiped blood from her face.

"D-does she know he's immortal?" Kisame whispered tentatively.

"I don't know." Itachi responded, Arnya answered the question by getting up and walking over to Hidan's head. She picked him up by the hair and stared angrily into his purple eyes.

"You have officially, fucked yourself over buddy."

Hidan grinned widely at her, "Wow, you're a fucking firecracker, swear at me again bitch."

Arnya bit back a number of nasty retorts and instead smiled darkly at him. The smile held a dark humour to it, it was the kind of smile that made small children cry and hide behind their mothers.

She strolled outside. Deidara, Itachi, and Kisame followed her. Curious what she would do next. Kakuzu decided to keep his distance from the angry kunoichi and watched from the window.

She walked out near the trees. Lowered Hidan's head to about hip level, swung her leg back and kicked with full force sending the Jashinist cursing through the air. While the head was in the air Arnya did a number of speedy hand signs and spit a giant fireball towards him.

Itachi watched with mixture of astonishment and admiration. She was someone truly deserving of the name Uchiha.

Kisame laughed out when he heard Hidan cursing desperately at her, yelling something about how she was a godless heathen and Jashin would smite her for this.

Deidara's jaw dropped. He observed the deadly grace of her movements, and her mastery of the flames. She was an artist after his own heart.

Kakuzu didn't see the flames happen because he fell over laughing the moment her foot connected with Hidan's head.

Somehow Hidan's head remained relatively unharmed. Part of his silver hair was singed. And he had a nasty burn on his cheek, but he was intact. Sort of.

Arnya roughly grabbed Hidan by the hair again and whipped his head towards the compound. "Fix your fucking partner and keep him the fuck away from me." she screamed as Hidan's head shattered the window Kakuzu was standing by.

It was only then that she realized Deidara's little white bird was till perched on her shoulder. "I should have thrown this at him." she said with a smirk, "assuming you would have detonated it if I had."

"I most definably would have." Deidara said, he was still unable to close his mouth completely.

"Good," she smiled at him, "I'm going to go wash off his filthy blood and then we can go on our field trip." and she walked back inside, leaving the three men standing in bemused silence.


	14. Search For A Friend

"What do you mean declare her S-Class?" Naruto burst out angrily slamming his fist onto the Hokage's desk.

"Naruto," Tsunade began taking a deep breath, "She's joined the Akatsuki, she's not coming home we need to accept that she's no longer one of us."

"Tsunade-sama," Sakura began shakily knowing all to well that if she did word this quite right Tsunade would lose it, "by that logic we'd have to declare Sasuke as well. It's not right to declare one and not the other, and we're still looking for Sasuke so…"

"EXACTLY!" Naruto yelled out thankful Sakura was on his side, "as long as I'm still searching for Sasuke, I'll search for Arnya too."

Kakashi hovered in the back ground, he was greatly torn with this situation. Having heard Yamato's report on their mission to Tenshi Bridge, he concluded that Sasuke didn't have any plans of coming home. And Arnya made it painfully obvious she wasn't returning to the village. However, Sasuke was his student, he had spent so much time getting to know and training the boy, he felt it partially his responsibility to help bring him back. And Arnya, though not his own student, was someone he could get along with.

She was respectful, but strong willed. She wouldn't hesitate to tell you if she believed you were wrong. However smart enough not to do so without an arguable case behind her point. She had reminded him in strange way of Rin, with the way she looked after her team-mates. She wasn't a medic-nin but she had the foresight to carry basic medical supplies with her, that she, as far as Kakashi ever saw, never used on herself, they were there for when her comrades needed them.

Sai stood back from the others. He had never met this Arnya girl, however if their next encounter with her is anything like the one with Sasuke he wasn't looking forward to finding her.

"Fine," Tsunade resigned, not really wanting to have to add Arnya to a bingo book, "We'll continue searching for her, however." she added as Naruto opened his mouth, "only when we get a lead on where she may be. Until then we're not going on a wild goose chase after her."

Naruto opened his mouth to argue, even though he really didn't have a point, when Sakura's fist collided with his head. He was tucked into her vice like grip as she moved him into a head lock.

"That's reasonable milady, we'll be leaving you be now." Sakura dragged Naruto from the office.

"Naruto, there's no point in fighting her any further. We should count ourselves lucky we've kept Arnya out of the bingo book for now." Sakura sighed, "I don't like knowing she's somewhere out there with that lot either but there's nothing we can do right now."

**X~X**

Sasuke's eye kept wandering to the dark haired kunoichi across the field. Anko the proctor for the second part of the exam, was explaining the rules regarding the "Forest Of Death." but the young Uchiha was barely listening.

"Why didn't Itachi kill her?" the question burned in his mind. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see his childhood best friend alive, in fact it took every ounce of his will power not to grab her in a hug the moment he realized who she was, but it was so confusing. "Did she escape? No Itachi would have found her."

"And she doesn't remember me. Did he seal her memories, but why? Why not kill her? He destroyed her family. Her mother, father and four-year-old sister. Why not her?"

At that moment Arnya looked around sensing someone watching her. She turned to see Sasuke Uchiha staring at her. He realized he'd been caught and looked quickly down at the ground. She smiled wearily, she was confused by this boy. What had he meant when he asked her if she remembered growing up here? Did he know her? If this was it he could help her, this boy may be the one she needed. The one to help her find her past.

**X~X**

"Can Tobi come too?"

"No." Arnya didn't elaborate any further. She simply didn't want this idiot tagging along. Besides he drew a lot of attention and Arnya would much rather just go in get what she wanted and get out.

Deidara smirked at her quick reply, the last person he wanted to be going with them was Tobi.

"Can I join?" Itachi stepped towards Arnya and Deidara who were on their way out the door.

"Uh," Arnya wasn't sure she wanted Itachi to come either but didn't want to say no and be Mangekyo'd into his submission, "If you want, I'm just going to get food then stopping at a bookstore."

"That's fine I wouldn't mind new reading material." he said almost casually. Itachi refused to allow Arnya to be alone with some one as unstable as Deidara for as long as he could possibly help it. Once they got a new mission there'd be nothing he could do but for the time being, he'd keep her from harm at the blonde's psychotic hands.

His rational mind told him that he had no right to hover over her like this. She was a grown woman and fully capable of defending herself. But a sort of big brother instinct had over taken him. He would protect her to the best of his ability without drawing attention to what he was doing.

Deidara's ground his teeth. Itachi wasn't high on the list of people he wanted going either. In fact Deidara would be happy to go alone with her. It seems like every time they got a conversation going, or had a moment alone one of these goddamn idiots busts in and ruin everything.

"Anyone else?" Arnya asked, "Anyone want me grab anything in particular?"

"Shrimp!"

"Spare Ribs!"

"Fuck you Hidan I'm not getting you shit, anyone else?"

"Liver."

"Ew, okay."

"Inarizushi"

"Hmm, I was unaware you actually ate Tobi, is that it?"

Itachi had the forethought to write everything they yelled back at her down. He remembered what she'd mentioned about her short term memory not being very good.

"Well if that's it, lets go," Itachi said, "We should be back before nightfall."

Deidara gave Itachi a long searching look. There was something off about the way the Uchiha was acting today. Deidara noted with rising anger the way Itachi fit himself between him and Arnya. Itachi was sort of hovering over her. What did this sadist think he was doing?

Deidara picked up his pace a little bit, and managed to get beside Arnya. "So you've got three options, there's a little village to the east yeah. It basics though, simple clothes, cheap food, not much to it. Then up north is more of a rest stop for travellers, yeah. hot springs, bars, and such. The best bet is the village to the west, not only is it the closest but it's a market town yeah."

"Alright, west we go." Arnya said happily taking Deidara's advice, she changed course, and she and her two companions moved west.

The village was coming into sight when Arnya suddenly froze.

"Shit."

"What's wrong yeah."

She began scanning the area, she seemed to find the source of her worry. "Shit." she repeated. She suddenly grabbed both Itachi and Deidara by the backs of their necks and pulled them into a bush.

"Arnya what the hell."

"Shut up Uchiha." she hissed without thinking about who she was actually talking to. She peeked through the leaves to see a group of four shinobi approaching. "Genma-sensei." she breathed out.

Kotetsu Hagane, Izumo Kamizuki, Genma Shiranui, and Anko Mitarashi were heading home after a mission. Kotetsu was complaining about the workload as usual. Izumo rolled his eyes and ignored his best friend. Anko was chomping down on a sweet, Genma suddenly froze. There was another chakra signature in the area. It felt so familiar to him. He definably knew the person this belonged to.

"What's up Genma?" Kotetsu turned to see his team-mate standing frozen staring at the berry bush Izumo was currently standing by. He signalled to the three of them that they weren't alone.

He looked pointedly at the bush.

"Fucking Shit, he's recognized my chakra signature." Arnya's mind was working fast, running into her old teacher was the very last thing she'd expected to happen.

"Who has yeah?"

"My sensei," she pointed out the four leaf shinobi standing near the bush, "Genma's the one with the senbon in his mouth."

"Genma was your sensei?" Itachi seemed interested, "I knew him when I still lived in Konoha."

"That's good for you right now we need to find a way out of here." she hissed back

"Why?" Deidara asked, "I'll just bomb them and be done."

Arnya gave him a look clearly saying that she thought he was an idiot, "You fucking moron, your style is more than obvious. Kill them like that and we might as well leave them a fucking flashing neon signing saying that there are Akatsuki in the area."

Deidara pouted a bit, knowing she was right he didn't argue back. Itachi was impressed by her reasoning skills. "Substitutions," Itachi muttered, "we use some quick substitutions and get the hell out of Genma's range."

"I don't want to use too much Chakra to get out of here though, he may be able to follow the trail."

She could feel Genma approaching the bush. Judging by the looks on the other two's faces they could as well.

It was Deidara who figured out what to do. He reached into Arnya's kunai pouched and pulled out a smoke bomb. He slammed it onto the ground and the air became thick and dark. The smoke engulfing all of them. He grabbed Arnya's hand and she linked her free arm into Itachi's.

Genma was shouting orders at his team-mates. He threw several shiruken into the mist.

Arnya sensed the weapons first she let go of Itachi and threw a handful of kunai behind her. There was clang of metal and the weapons were deflected away. Deidara kept a tight hold on her hand and Itachi had managed to get a handful of fabric from the sweater she was wearing. The blonde was leading them out of the mist towards the market village just down the hill.

"Where the hell did they go?" Anko yelled out in frustration as the smoke began to clear.

"Fuck, who the hell was it Genma?" Izumo was glaring around the surrounding area.

"I didn't see any faces, but the chakra felt like…" he trailed off not wanting to admit it to himself just yet.

"Like who?" Kotetsu was getting impatient

"I can't believe she would have attacked us." Genma's voice dropped and his chocolate brown eyes became sullen.

"WHO?" all three chunin screamed at their Jounin leader.

"Arnya." his voice barely above a whisper.

"No." Kotetsu and Izumo exclaimed in unison.

**X~X**

Arnya, Deidara and Itachi stopped all three fighting to catch their breath. They made it by the village and hid them selves in a rock shelf in the hill face.

"Deidara that was ingenious. Thank you." she gently squeezed the hand that was still holding her own.

"It was sloppy," Itachi criticized, his natural pride preventing him from acknowledging Deidara's accomplishment, "They could easily have gotten us with something in that smoke. If it hadn't been for Arnya we'd have been impaled by shiruken"

"Shut up Itachi, Deidara got us out of there fine. It doesn't matter what method was used to get out, their attacking us was inevitable. Genma is skilled and intelligent, he knew it was me. The village knows I'm an Akatsuki, they have orders to kill Akatsuki."

Deidara watched in shock as she fearlessly stared Itachi in the eye defending him. He also didn't fail to notice that their hands were still linked, and her grip on him was stronger than his on her.

Itachi couldn't believe she was defending the psychotic blonde. He was even more shocked by the defiant, fearless look in her eyes as she glared directly into his Sharingan. Any other Akatsuki member would be shitting themselves at the fury in his gaze, cowering in fear of Tsukiyomi. But she was challenging him, daring him to try. He glanced over her shoulder for a moment to see Deidara had moved closer to her. Almost protectively, Itachi could almost read the nineteen-year-old's thoughts, If Itachi tried to use Mangekyo on her Deidara would not hesitate to blow him to bits.

Itachi sighed, and rolled his eyes at the kunoichi, "Whatever. Lets get what you wanted from the village and get back to base."

"You think we should still go into the village. If I'm right and Genma knew it was me, they might come looking."

"We should get what we came for yeah." Deidara spoke for the first time since they'd gotten away. She turned to face him. He noticed how her eyes softened instantly when they locked onto his. The realization that she obviously liked him more than Itachi made his heart skip a beat. It skipped several more when he realized that sitting in front of him was that welcoming, warm beauty he had witnessed earlier, and in this moment she was here just for him. The existence of everything around him had melted away. The only thing that mattered were her soft gray eyes, her gentle pink lips, her creamy pale skin. Her wispy black curls, the warmth of her hand interlaced with his.

Deidara was snapped back to reality when Itachi cleared his throat loudly. He glared darkly at the interfering Uchiha bastard.

Arnya sighed, "Lets go and get everything so we can go back."

She removed her hand from Deidara's and he lamented at the loss. Itachi stood and resumed his obsessive hovering over her.

They walked in tense silence to the village. Arnya went directly to get food. Itachi read off the list of things the others wanted. Arnya and Deidara gathered everything but Hidan's spare ribs. Arnya meant it when she said he wasn't getting him anything. As well as a few other personal treats, Deidara insisted on eggs and surimi for his bakudan. Arnya stocked up on instant ramen, and rice. Their food collected and purchased, they headed towards a bookstore.

Arnya drifted immediately for the fiction section. Her eyes lighting up seeing the new book to her favourite series was out. Itachi's eyes followed her as he walked towards the non-fiction section. Deidara wasn't much of a reader so he went with Arnya.

Itachi had a few books on jutsu's and an interesting looking book on Kekkai Genkai's. Arnya had a fresh copy of the new book, and a battered looking little novel from the bargain bin.

"What's that yeah?"

"Tales of a Gusty Ninja," she answered, Deidara and Itachi both raised their eyebrows, "Weird name I know. But I knew the guy who wrote it, it was his first book, and the only one outside the Icha Icha series."

"Who wrote it."

"Jiraiya, Legendary Sannin of the Leaf." she said, Itachi could hear a bit of pride enter her tone.

"You knew one of the Legendary Sannin?"

"I've met all three of them actually. Well I didn't technically met Orochimaru but I've seen him. Jiraiya took Naruto on as his protégé, and Tsunade is the Hokage."

"Makes sense yeah."

The trio made their way back to the base. Arnya being slightly on guard in case Genma-sensei was still around. But they made it back without incident.

**X~X**

Kisame bear hugged Arnya when he saw the amount of shrimp she'd brought for him. Her small stature making her look tiny and fragile in the bulk of blue's grip. Kakuzu thanked Arnya for his liver, and expressed that he hoped she hadn't spent a lot. Tobi jumped happily upon seeing his food. Hidan sulked bitterly and gave Arnya few choice curse words before stalking off when he noticed she'd bought him nothing.

Arnya smirked at Hidan's disappointment, "I told you I wasn't getting you anything."

Hidan opened his mouth to retort but saw her hand fly to her kunai pouch decided he didn't want to be her soccer ball again.

Deidara ended up making too much bakudan. He looked over and saw Arnya pulling an instant ramen cup out of the cupboard and grinned. "Just eat his yeah." he grabbed an extra plate and scooped the eggs onto it.

Arnya looked at it sceptically, "Just it eat, I'm not trying to poison you yeah."

"I'm not worried about poison, I've decided to be ready for anything you hand me to explode upon contact." she smirked and took the plate anyway, "Thank you." they sat together at the table.

Itachi eyed the food Deidara gave Arnya suspiciously. The rational voice in his head began questioning him, "Why are you so paranoid? He obviously likes her, he's just being friendly."

The argumentative voice, the one Itachi was currently let make his decisions spoke up, "It's Deidara, he's a psychotic terrorist bomber. He's quick tempered, and is liable to turn Arnya into a 'piece of art'"

"Not necessarily, he likes Arnya, he hates you. He hasn't blown you up, so why would he her?"

"Just shut up."

**X~X**

Everyone had finished their dinner and was lounging in the living room. Tobi was sitting cross legged on the floor playing solitaire. Kisame, Deidara, Hidan and Kakuzu has produced another deck of cards and sat around the table playing poker. Arnya sat at the couch watching them play, Tales of A Gutsy Ninja in her hand. Itachi had isolated himself in a corner with his book on Kekkai Genkai's.

"Is this a usual Saturday night in the Akatsuki?" Arnya asked stretching her arms above her head.

"Well sometimes we go down to the bar, but that's usually for birthdays." Kisame grinned at her

"Mine's next month yeah."

"Did no expect you guys to actually celebrate each others birthdays."

"Why not yeah. It gives us an excuse to go drink."

"When's Arnya's birthday?" Tobi asked enthusiastically.

"June 16th."

"How do you know that?" Kakuzu asked, "If you don't remember anything how can you be sure when your birthday is?

Arnya sighed and reached into her kunai pouch. She pulled out a piece of paper, and handed it to the men.

Scrawled across the page was;

This girl's name is Arnya. Her birthday is June 16th she is nine-years-old and an orphan. Her parents were recently killed. She will have no memories of her life when she wakes up. Please take care of her.

"Who ever wrote it was in a hell of a hurry yeah."

The others nodded. Itachi sat in the corner holding his breath. If one of them managed to recognize his handwriting.

Kisame stared at the words. He knew who's writing this was. He looked up towards his partner, could Itachi have had something to do with this girls past?

"I have to wonder why they bothered to include my birthday." Arnya muttered.

"To keep track of your age probably, yeah. But the fact that they knew this…"

"Means it was someone I was close to."

Kisame spoke up, "Whoever it was," he had to make a concentrated effort on not looking pointedly at Itachi, "Seems to have wanted you to have a new life."

Itachi looked up at his partner. He sensed something in the way the hidden mist ninja was staring at him. "Oh dear god," he thought desperately, "This entire charade is about to crash around my ears."


	15. Chunin Exams Part 2: The Forest Of Death

_HI! so i recently went through and edited all the chapters.i fixed some spelling and gramatical errors and added breaks in the thing that are actually working XD. I'm not sure if it alerts you when i replace a chapter. if it does i sincerely apoligise for the ridonkulous amount of emails._

**X~X**

Arnya stopped on a branch and looked around her.

'What's wrong Arnya?" Sukai Hyuuga stopped just behind her.

"I just have a bad feeling, like something is wrong."

"Then shouldn't we keep moving?" Jade Kamizuki spoke up, "We have our scrolls we should get to the tower quickly."

"Yeah, but we should be careful. Sukai would you mind checking ahead?"

"Not a problem… Byakugan." Vein type markings appeared around Sukai's white eyes are he activated his Kekkai Genkai, "Uh oh."

"What is it?"

"Those kids we talked to earlier. Naruto and his team. They're in trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Jade looked concerned.

"The two boys are passed out, Rock Lee is on the ground. And Sakura is trying to fend off the Sound Ninja team alone."

"We have to help them!" Arnya and Jade shouted in unison.

"I agree but we need a plan."

"I'll think something up on the way. Lets just go." Arnya leapt in the direction Sukai had been looking towards.

"Hot-headed as always." Sukai sighed and chased after her.

Team Four stopped on a high branch over looking the scene. Sakura Haruno hadn't noticed them as she was busy trying to struggle out of the Kin's grasp.

Arnya prepared herself to knock that little bitch right on her ass when Sakura did something no one expected. The emerald eyed kunoichi pulled out a kunai, reached up and cut off her hair below where the Sound bitch was holding it, causing Kin to fall backwards.

"Holy shit." Jade and Sukai exclaimed.

"She is officially one of the most badass people I've ever met." Arnya muttered as Sakura stood proudly and sprung into action against her attackers.

Team four wasn't the only one there to help suddenly three more leaf genin jumped to Sakura's defence.

Arnya, Jade and Sukai froze in astonishment. Team ten held their own against the enemy until Ino Yamanaka's Mind Transfer Jutsu failed and Kin returned to her volatile angry self.

It was that moment when Kin stepped towards the weaken, not yet fully returned Ino, that Arnya and Jade jumped into action.

Arnya tackled the girl from behind while Jade shoulder checked her from the side. The girls took Kin down Arnya managed to get on top of the girl and hold a kunai at her throat. With Arnya holding Kin back, Jade and Sukai readied themselves for her team-mates.

The one that looked like he was part bird glared dangerously at them. Dozu started towards them when there a great surge of chakra.

The sensation was enough to make Arnya shiver in fear at it's darkness.

The entire group looked around to see Sasuke standing. He looked horribly menacing, there were flame like markings overtaking his body.

He looked down at his injured team-mate. "Sakura, who did this to you?"

Sakura didn't or couldn't answer as she stared up at the Uchiha. The last sound guy, and the one who had caused Sakura the most harm spoke up, "That would be me."

"Watch yourself Zaku." Dozu warned as Sasuke walked towards him.

Zaku moved to attack with a jutsu big enough to destroy everyone in the way of it. Currently that meant Sasuke and Sakura. However with speed even Arnya's sharingan couldn't follow Sasuke ripped Sakura out of harms way. Landed beside Zaku and flicked the sound ninja away like he was a bug.

Sasuke approached the dizzied boy and grabbed his wrist pulling his arms backward at a highly unnatural angle. There was a snap and a scream as Zaku's arms broke.

Teams four and ten watched in shock and horror as Sasuke mercilessly destroyed Zaku. Kin began struggling against Arnya's hold. Arnya sighed and gave the little twit a good smack to the back of the head effectively ending her uncooperativeness for the moment.

Sasuke looked over and smirked when he saw that Arnya had already taken care of the girl. His sharingan locked momentarily on her gray eyes. Sasuke then started towards Dozu. Who began to look panicked.

Dozu surrendered. He rolled his scroll towards Sasuke's feet and began talking about just walking away. Sasuke acted as if he couldn't hear and continued towards him, a look of dark blood lust in his eye.

Sakura ran up behind the Uchiha and wrapped her arms around his body, "Please stop." she whispered, "Just stop."

Sasuke's face went blank, the black marks that had appeared on his skin retreated to a spot on the back of his neck. His body slumped forward, and he landed on his knees.

Dozu collected his friends and left.

"That was fucking crazy." Jade swore. Arnya looked at her friend dumbfounded, "What?" jade looked confused

"Since when do you curse like that?" Arnya's amusement was more than apparent.

"The situation called for it." Jade said with a shrug.

"You're a bad influence on her." Sukai muttered in Arnya's ear.

"Pssh, whatever I'm fucking awesome." she responded.

"Point proven." Sukai smirked.

"Thank you all so much." Sakura regarded her helpers with appreciation.

"Sakura, Come over here. I wont to fix your hair." Ino smiled.

"Speaking of which." Arnya said turning to the pink-haired girl, "That was amazing. You may be one of the strongest women I've ever met." pure honesty in every word.

Sakura looked a little taken aback then smiled hugely at Arnya, "Thank you." she didn't seem to know what else to say.

Arnya leaned down next to Sasuke who was looking rather shell shocked, "Sasuke are you alright?" she said gently placing a hand on his shoulder.

Sasuke jumped at her touch as if she had electrocuted him. He looked up into her deep gray eyes, once again it took almost all of his will power not to jump up and wrap his arms around her.

_Sasuke was training with Itachi. Arnya watching for the side lines as the boys threw kunai at the targets the older of the two had set up for them. _

_Sasuke was having a great time. He ran forwards to collect his weapons when he tripped over a rock his arm caught on of the kunai laying on the ground._

_Arnya had come prepared. One them always managed to injure themselves when training so she'd taken to carrying basic first aid supplies around with her._

_She ran forward and kneeled by Sasuke. Her hand brushed his shoulder, "Sasuke, are you alright?" her voice quiet and gentle as she began cleaning the wound. _

Arnya was taken aback by Sasuke's sudden spasm. She removed her hand from his shoulder and instinctively straightened up.

"I'm sorry." she said uncertainly not knowing if it was her that caused his jump.

"Are you sure you don't remember me?" Sasuke said without thinking

"I'm sorry," she repeated, "Did I know you before?"

Sasuke sighed and looked up into her eyes. There was no lie in them. She really didn't know. Pain washed desperately over him. He'd make her remember. A little bit at a time so as not overwhelm her, but in time she'd know who she really was. What she was to him.


	16. Happy Birthday Deidara

_YAY! It's May 5__th__. Happy Birthday Deidara-Senpai _

**X~X**

Arnya was awoken by a shout coming from the kitchen. It sounded like people were arguing. This wasn't anything new, in her month at the Akatsuki fighting amongst the members was a daily ritual. She had beheaded Hidan again before he and Kakuzu left. Deidara had gotten sick and tired of Tobi following him around and threw several small bombs at him. Kisame got angry when Tobi insulted his cooking and took a few swings at him with Samehada. Arnya caught Tobi trying to peek at her in the shower and lit his Akatsuki cloak on fire, and watched him run around the yard trying to put himself out, Deidara had made popcorn and brought chairs out for that event. Even Itachi lost it on Tobi and put him in Tsukiyomi.

Life at the Akatsuki base was never dull.

Arnya got herself up and dressed in her usual leather and fishnet shirt and black skirt. She opened the door to her room and saw Deidara poking his messy blonde head out his door.

He yawned, and she grinned at him, "Happy Birthday Psycho-Bomber."

"That's right I'm twenty today yeah." he said sleepily.

"That you are," Then her cheeks blushed a gentle pink, "Here." she handed him an unwrapped package.

"What is it yeah."

"Something that'll add more detail to your art." She smiled and walked towards the kitchen.

Deidara looked down at the package in his hand. It was detonating clay, but it was coloured. Not too much, simple reds, oranges, and yellows. The colours of fire. He grinned at her retreating form, this was the coolest gift he'd ever gotten.

**X~X**

Kisame was officially sick and tired of Tobi. The little bastard kept getting in the way while Kisame was cooking. Now there were eggs all over, and a piece of bacon had some how managed to get stuck to the ceiling.

Arnya walked in. Tobi was trying to crawl away on the floor. Kisame was seething, Samehada at the ready in his hand. Arnya smirked. She never passed up an opportunity to see Tobi get his ass kicked. She waved her arm to get Kisame's attention. He looked over at her. And she pointed at the floor where Tobi was on his hands and knees trying to escape.

Kisame flashed her a brilliant grin and crept quietly behind Tobi. He lifted Samehada and swung down. The sword only just missed Tobi who managed to roll over just in time.

Deidara walked into the kitchen to see Tobi running for his life Kisame hot on his heels, giant sword raised in the air. He smile hugely, and tripped Tobi while the masked man was trying to run past him.

Tobi scrambled to his feet before Kisame reached him and ran towards the outside.

Arnya and Deidara watched from the window, Kisame swinging wildly in front of him, trying to land a hit on the surprisingly speedy little twerp.

"Should we give him a hand yeah?" Deidara said slyly

"What've you got in mind?"

Deidara pointed to a spot of red on Tobi's black outfit. A little red spider had attached itself to his back.

Arnya grinned an evil little smile, "Do it."

Deidara smiled at the sight of her evil grin. He'd seen it quite often in this last week, as the two of them spent more time together than would be good for a normal person's mental health. It was a good thing he and Arnya were so far out of the general idea of normality. He prepared his hand seal "Katsu!"

The explosion was minor. Tobi wouldn't be terribly injured, he might a have a burn on his back. But the effect was spectacular. Tobi's shirt caught on fire and he let out a squeal and fell to the ground. Kisame took the opportunity to start beating him with Samehada's hilt.

Arnya and Deidara laughed as Tobi cowered on the ground, curled up in the fetal position trying to protect himself from Kisame's hits.

Shark Man seemed to have exercised his anger and latched Samehada onto his back while turning back towards the house.

"Great start to the morning yeah."

"Oh definably a sign that its going to be a great day."

**X~X**

Itachi really didn't give a damn about Deidara's birthday, or anyone else's for that matter. His own birthday meant little to none to him. But Kisame and Arnya seemed excited, whether it be for Deidara or for an excuse to go and drink themselves insensible, Itachi couldn't say for sure.

At any rate he figured he may as well go with the group, Tobi wasn't going. Hidan and Kakuzu were gone so it would just be Arnya, Kisame, Deidara and Itachi.

Kisame was looking for an opportunity to corner his partner. He knew the hand writing on Arnya's note belong to the Uchiha, and Kisame was determined to find out why.

The huge bulk of blue finally found an opening. Itachi was in his room and no one else was in the immediate area. Kisame was about to knock on the door when he heard

"All of you in here!" Pain's voice echoed from the living room.

The group gathered together, it wasn't actually Pain today, just a holographic shadow, "I'm only here to remind you cretins not to draw any attention to yourselves tonight. The last thing we need is for Konoha to find out where this base is."

"Understood." Kisame addressed, the others nodded.

"And Happy Birthday Deidara." Pain added before flickering away.

"Well that was unexpected yeah."

**X~X**

Arnya wasn't sure what one wears when going out for a birthday. Back in Konoha the most that was done for someone's birthday was going for either BBQ or ramen, and that had been very informal, not that she expected going out with the Akatsuki to be glamorous. She sighed and decided on something she hadn't worn in a long time.

Deidara, Kisame and Itachi were sitting in the living room waiting for Arnya to finish getting ready. Kisame and Deidara's jaws dropped as she walked into the room.

Arnya was dressed in a tight blood red blouse. It was low cut enough to be comfortable and tasteful, fishnet sleeves, paired with a flowy black skirt that hung to just above her knees. Her hair fell around in shoulders in it's usual curls. Around her neck was a simple chain, a small plastic container filled with red and white glass shards hung like a pendant.

Tobi looked curiously at the necklace, "What's that?"

"According to the doctors, this was laying beside me when they found me outside the village." She lifted the necklace off and looked at it, "It's just a matter of me putting them back together."

"Why haven't you?" Itachi fought to keep his voice casual.

"I've tried, it's like a puzzle that's missing a piece. I've never been able to figure out what it is."

Itachi stared at the shards. It had been stupid of him to leave the necklace with her.

_Itachi gently wrapped the little girl in a blanket. He set her on the ground at the village gates, his last act as a Shinobi of Konoha. She looked so small and helpless. Her fingers curled protectively around a glass pendant, Itachi leaned down and nearly smacked himself in the head for not noticing it before. The Uchiha clan symbol hung around the girl's neck. He carefully removed the necklace, another small tear streaked down his face as he looked from the symbol to the child. He closed his eyes and shattered the necklace leaving the pieces beside her unconscious form. He left a note beside her hoping beyond hope that she'd have a good, safe life._

"Well, we'll have to help you solve it yeah." Deidara smiled up at her.

"Not right now, we have plans."

**X~X**

The group sat at a small table in the bar. Arnya had managed to embarrass Deidara, much to Kisame's amusement, by informing the bartender that it was his birthday. The bartender and waitresses proceeded to gather around their table and announce to the entire bar that it was his birthday, and lead the drunks in a chorus of horribly off key 'Happy Birthday to you.'

"You wait till your birthday, I'll get you for that yeah." Deidara glared at Arnya from across the table.

"I'm terrified really." Arnya rolled her eyes and grinned.

"You should be." Kisame said, "He's likely to make a cake out of detonating clay."

"True. That would really suck, Happy Birthday BOOM!" Arnya grinned at Deidara, "I'd haunt you,, you'd never have another moment's peace."

"That's why I wont kill you yeah. A coma is a suitable option."

Itachi's eyes narrowed involuntarily when he looked over at Deidara. He knew Deidara wasn't serious but something inside him was ready to snap and destroy the blonde.

"I'd find away." Arnya smirked, "Just imagine how horrible I could make your life. Always there, hovering over you."

"You're already always around, what difference would it make yeah?"

"Oh so I already make your life horrible?"

Deidara sighed, "I give up yeah."

"I always win in the end." Arnya's smirk grew.

The group continued to order drink after drink. Kisame and Arnya managed to hold their liquor pretty well. Itachi wasn't drinking much and barely felt a buzz. They decided to head back to base when Deidara slid sideways off his chair laughing like a moron.

Arnya somehow managed to get stuck with helping Deidara up the hill to the base. She threw his arm around her shoulders and wound her own arm around his chest. It was a struggle pulling the much taller person up the slant. About halfway up the hill Deidara's foot slid out behind him. His entire body lurched and Arnya's hold on him was gone. He rolled down the hill and landed in a crumpled heap against a rock.

"Oh shit, Deidara are you alright?" Arnya ran down the hill and kneeled beside him. Kisame came up behind her looking down with concern. Itachi stayed at the top of the hill trying not to laugh at Deidara's predicament.

"The fuck happened yeah?" He slurred, he pushed Arnya's outstretched hand away and lifted himself up on the rock.

"Well, you fell." Arnya said, she wanted to check to make sure he wasn't concussed.

"No fucking duh yeah. Why didn't you stop me?"

"I tried to, I didn't see it coming, you just..."

"Oh the sharingan bitch couldn't see it coming yeah. You can drop us in a genjutsu whenever you want but can't stop someone getting seriously fucking hurt. What the fuck good are you yeah?"

Arnya's eyes filled with pain. She stared at Deidara, her mouth open like she wanted to respond but didn't have the words.

Deidara seemed to sober up instantly when he saw signs of wetness at the corners of her eyes, "oh, Arnya, I'm sorry yeah. I don't know what I was…"

"Fuck you." She said simply, she turned to walk away when Deidara grabbed her hand.

"Arnya, I'm sorr…" Arnya's fist connected with Deidara's gut. He flew a few feet back into the rock. He slumped unconscious on the ground.

Arnya stormed back up the hill. She passed Itachi and he noticed her desperately rubbing her eyes trying to hide the tears forming in them.

"Happy birthday asshole." Itachi muttered before following behind the fumingly pissed off and hurt kunoichi.

Kisame was left to heave Deidara over his shoulder and carry the blonde back to base.

**X~X**

Arnya slammed the door to her room shut. She was a fucking idiot, letting that dick so close to her. Everyone ends up hurting you in the end. No ands ifs or buts about it. She growled in anger when she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Tears slowly rolled down her pale face. She wiped them away and forced herself not to allow anymore to escape.

She had already promised herself once she'd never cry over a man again.

**X~X**

_I'm sorry i did this to you on your birthday Senpai._


	17. Itachi's Decision

When Deidara woke up his head was spinning. He couldn't remember much from last night. He groggily opened the door to his room, deciding he needed some greasy bacon and eggs to relieve him of this headache. He poked his head out and saw Arnya, he looked up and gave her a small grin. Her eyes darkened, she bared her teeth at him in anger and slammed the door to her room shut.

"Oh fuck… what did I do yeah?"

Deidara walked into the kitchen to see Kisame and Itachi sitting at the table. Both men looked up to see him and looked down again. Tobi walked in behind him and said in a sing-song voice. "Deidara-Senpai made Arnya very angry."

"Shut the fuck up Tobi yeah" Deidara turned to the other two, "What did I do yeah?"

Itachi glared up at Deidara and looked back down without a word. Kisame sighed and said, "You almost dragged her down a hill when you fell, got pissed at her for not catching you, insulted her sharingan, and basically called her a useless bitch. And when you tried to apologize you grabbed a hold of her wrist and she punched you so hard you flew backwards into a giant rock and passed out."

Deidara's face went blank. He thought hard about it, he remembered falling, and Arnya running down the hill to help him, he also remembered seeing tears in her eyes, and her fist suddenly colliding with him.

"Shit…" Deidara turned to go apologize to Arnya, when Itachi spoke up

"I wouldn't suggest you bother her right now."

"Why not yeah. I should say sorry."

"Whatever, you can try. None of us will put you out when she lights you on fire."

"Shut up Uchiha, I can figure my own shit out yeah."

Deidara pushed past Tobi as made his way to Arnya's room. He knocked on the door. She opened it, and looked up at him. Her expression was angry and spiteful. Her eyes were dark, and filled with hurt.

"Arnya. I'm so sorry. I was dr…"

"Not an excuse!" and the door was slammed in his face.

**X~X**

Deidara spent the next three days routinely apologizing to Arnya. She just glared at him each time, she refused to speak to him, or even stay in the same room as him.

Itachi grew concerned. True her avoiding Deidara was what he wanted. But the pain in her eyes drove him crazy. Upon hearing her door slam in Deidara's face for the hundredth time, he decided to try and talk to her.

Itachi knocked on the door, "Deidara I said fuck off, oh Itachi… what do you want?"

"May I come in?"

"Yeah." she resigned and step back to allow him in.

He sat on her desk chair and she on her bed, "So what do you want?"

"Why are you allowing that blonde moron to hurt you so much?"

Arnya stared at Itachi, "Who says I'm hurting?"

"I can see it. You're tearing yourself to shreds. You want to forgive him but your pride outweighs your emotions."

"I discovered along time ago that caring about people gets me nowhere but hurt. I fell for someone hard and fast. He left me, and my friends had forsaken me. I got used to living alone, I should have stayed alone. I was stupid to come here and allow him so close."

"Who did you fall for?"

She looked up at him, a single tear falling from her dark eyes. "Sasuke."

**X~X**

Sasuke watched her sparring with her team across the training field where he was waiting on Kakashi. She was training with the Hyuuga on her team. He was enthralled by her graceful movements. She dodged every one of Sukai's attacks, light on her feet, she ducked, hoped and spun around to avoid his gentle fist jutsu.

"You're getting better Sukai." she smiled at her team-mate

"Then why can't I hit you?"

"Because I'm putting all my effort into avoiding you, I'd rather not have my chakra points screwed up thanks." she smiled jokingly. Sukai grinned back.

"It's you that should be training Arnya. You're the one whose in the final rounds." Genma called to her, "how much have you been using your Sharingan lately?"

"You know I don't like using that." she said simply, "I'm up against a grass ninja, who as far as any Intel has told us uses earth and wind styles. Both of which my fire style is strong against. I'd rather work on that."

"Yes but your Sharingan can help you dodge attacks more fluently. You spend too much energy and time trying to predict your opponents moves on your own. If you improved your Kekkai Genkai you'd be able to dodge and attack at once."

"Genma-Sensei I respect your opinion, but I don't feel like these eyes are my own when I use it. It's not a Kekkai Genkai if I didn't get it through blood line."

Sasuke shook, "It is blood line, the Sharingan is your birth right. Hone it, use it, master it. You're more powerful than me, always have been." he muttered desperately forcing himself not to call out to her.

"Arnya, mastering your Sharingan can be the difference between life and death. You're powerful yes. But you put too much focus into one thing. One day your going to dodge and miss something you would have seen if you'd just listen to me."

Arnya sighed in defeat, "Fine, I'll work on it."

"Sorry I'm late Sasuke." Kakashi appeared by the Uchiha who rolled his eyes at his Sensei.

"What else is new?"

"Oh so you were waiting on Kakashi." Genma said

"That'll be Five bucks Sukai." Arnya said smiling hugely at her team-mate

"Fine here." he slapped the money into her hand.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"We had a bet, I said you were probably waiting on someone, Sukai said you were probably stalking me."

"Why would I be stalking you?"

"No clue. Sukai is a conspiracy theorist."

"No I'm not. You're the last Uchiha. I figured you'd want to know more about her Sharingan."

"If I wanted to ask her about her eyes I'd do it without following her."

"Exactly," Arnya smiled brilliantly, "Well I'm officially starving, I say we go find food."

"Anyway Sasuke I just wanted to let you know I cant train you today." Kakashi said

"What?," Sasuke looked outraged, "I waited here for two hours, and that's all you've got to say?"

"I'm sorry Sasuke, I'll see you tomorrow."

Sasuke fumed. He was staring angrily at the spot his teacher had just disappeared from.

"Calm down Sasuke, I can see a twitch developing in your eye. Come out and have lunch with us." Arnya grinned at him.

Sasuke's eyes lit up at the idea of spending an afternoon with her. This would be his chance to start unlocking her memories.

"Alright, where are we going?"

**X~X**

"My brother Sasuke?" Itachi couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"Yeah, Sasuke Uchiha. We were together since just before the final rounds of the Chunin Exams to the day he left to Konoha to go to Orochimaru."

"But you said you hated him."

"Part of me does. He was so familiar, I felt like with him I could unlock everything that had been hidden from me. And he left me with half pieced together memories and a broken heart."

"So you gave up on the world."

"Pretty much. I would have stayed in Konoha but I couldn't be around Sakura and Naruto. Sakura always cared about Sasuke. She was more than intensely jealous of me, but she knew Sasuke was, or at least seemed, happy with me so she put an effort into getting along with me. After Sasuke left she kind of broke. And Naruto was his best friend, they were like brothers. Extremely competitive and antagonizing brothers but family none-the-less. They were so determined to find Sasuke, but I knew he would come home. He left us, he was gone and we were nothing to him."

"So you took on being alone. Why did you join us then?"

"I was so sick of being so isolated. I had nowhere else to go, and well as far as my options were presented it was join or have Sasori impale me on Hiruko's scorpion tail."

"So you hoped being here would offer some form of companionship." Itachi continued to speak. None of his statements coming out as questions. He was relaying the information he was gathering and hoping she would feel up to elaborating.

More tears fell down Arnya's face. "some minor form of human contact. I just didn't want to be by myself anymore. At least here I'd have some sort of purpose. Some use to others. I didn't expect to end up feeling this way."

"What way."

"I fell for Deidara faster than I did Sasuke." Arnya sighed, "I don't even know how but he managed to destroy everyone of my protective little walls and settle himself in my head. And now I'm trying so hard to rebuild those walls but he's already in there, and the stubborn little blonde bitch refuses to leave."

Itachi suddenly made a decision. He did a few hand signs that Arnya didn't see. He reached forward and poked her forehead. Arnya looked incredulously at him. "What was that?"

"Sorry," he said with a smile, "Something I did with my little brother when we were kids. I'm going to go now. But I'd think about forgiving Deidara. If that's how you really feel about him."

Itachi walked out of the room. He was going to test Deidara's feelings for her. If what he just did worked that is.

**X~X**

Itachi closed Arnya's door behind him and Kisame seized his opportunity. He grabbed Itachi by the collar and pushed him into the Uchiha's bedroom.

"Kisame what are you doing?"

"The handwriting on Arnya's note was yours." Kisame said staring down at his partner, "She's an Uchiha isn't she?"

Itachi sighed, it was only a matter of time before Kisame managed to corner him like this. "She is. I let her live, I sealed her memories, and I dumped her in a village outside of Konoha."

"Why?"

"I don't know. There was something about the girl, she was like me. It was the moment I killed her little sister and she apologized to the Child for not being able to protect her that I decided I'd leave Arnya alive."

"So you've spent all this time here allowing her to feel miserable and confused."

"I felt it best that she not remember anything. I could very easily release the jutsu, but that would over whelm her. Her mind wouldn't be able to handle nine-years worth of life flying back at her."

"Well we can't leave her in the dark."

"No we can't. That's why I've just done something for her. If it works we'll be able to start helping her piece everything together."


	18. Forgiven

Deidara lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling. A little red and orange bird flying through his vision periodically. He sighed deeply. He wanted to try and talk to Arnya again, but was worried her level of violence may begin increasing with every rejection.

Well nothing ventured nothing gained. He stood and opened his door. Arnya was standing in the hall way looking as if she was just about to knock on Deidara's door.

"Deidara, um…" she trailed off awkwardly.

"Arnya, I'm sorry yeah." he decided to just jump right into his grovelling, "I don't have any excuse for being such an ass, but I really am sorry yeah."

"Can I come in?"

Deidara nodded and stepped to the side to allow her in to his room. It looked pretty much the same as Arnya's except Deidara had little clay creations scattered around the room. A singular bird was flying around the ceiling.

"Why do you hate the Sharingan?" Arnya asked sitting down in a chair.

"Itachi." Deidara said simply, "I didn't want to join the Akatsuki, Itachi challenged me yeah. If he won I had to join. And naturally because of his Sharingan I got my ass kicked yeah."

"So you have a grudge against my eyes."

"Not yours yeah. The problem I have with it, is it disrespects my art yeah."

"I like your art." Arnya said quietly, not yet ready to make eye contact with Deidara she watched the bird circle.

"I know. It's people like Itachi that I have a problem with yeah. Those eyes stare through and scrutinize. It's also what seems to be an inherit Uchiha ego that I cant stand yeah."

"You can be egotistic too."

"True but im smart enough to acknowledge when I cant beat someone yeah. In a one on one battle Itachi wins, I can't beat him without using extreme measures yeah."

"Then you wouldn't like Sasuke either."

"No I really can't say im a big fan of any Uchiha yeah." Deidara shrugged, "But you aren't really either yeah."

Arnya sighed, "I used to be with Sasuke."

"What?"

"Before he left Konoha the two of us were…" she trailed off.

"Why are you bothering to tell me that yeah?"

"Because as quickly as I fell for Sasuke and as much as I cared. I feel more for you than I ever did him."

**X~X**

Sasuke stood nervously by Arnya. He kept glancing over at her. She was sitting on a rock watching Kakashi explain more about Chidori.

Kakashi noticed Sasuke wasn't paying much attention and sighed. "Why don't you two go get lunch I'll wait here for when your ready to actually listen."

"You waiting on someone Kakashi-Sensei from what I've heard that's a once in a lifetime occurrence." Arnya grinned.

"Well you heard pretty much correctly, now go both of you."

"Oh it's not that you want Sasuke to pay attention you just want to be left to read your pervy little books."

Kakashi sighed and laughed a little, "Just leave."

They ended up sitting at Ichiraku, much to Sasuke's dismay. "If Naruto or Sakura finds me I'll never hear the end of it."

"You should be counting yourself lucky I'm not tearing into you for breaking out of the hospital. But you are with Kakashi so I guess that means you're not going to end up horribly injured."

"Well I could lecture you about hanging out with me instead of training with your own sensei."

Arnya smirked, "You're part of my training actually."

"Part of your training?" Sasuke asked, doing his best to ignore the 'Uchiha smirk' on her face.

"Genma-Sensei wants me to learn more about Sharingan and using it correctly." Arnya sighed, "I know he's right. It can be a major advantage to master it, but I feel wrong using it. Like I'm cheating. It's an Uchiha trait, it feels unfair for me to be using it."

"You should master it, you could probably be very proficient with it." Sasuke was unable to meet her eye. He was bursting to tell her everything.

She let out another sigh, "I suppose I should just suck it up and use it."

Their ramen eaten and paid for Sasuke started leading the way back to Kakashi.

"How long does Kakashi usually keep you waiting?"

"His record is three and a half hours why?"

"How long have we been gone?"

"About forty minutes."

"I say we find something to do for at least twenty minutes, make him wait for once." a sly little smile tugged at her lips.

Out of the three weeks the two had been spending together this wasn't the first time she had suggested this. Every other time Sasuke had been too into his training to even think about agreeing. But right now he finally had her alone, he could start puzzling her back together.

"Alright," Sasuke grabbed her hand, "Come with me." he pulled her towards the Uchiha compound, his home. The place he'd lost everything.

"This is where you lived?"

"Yeah, up until the day Itachi…" he trailed off. He had already explained what Itachi had done.

"Which house was yours?"

"Over this way." Still holding onto her hand he moved in the direction of his home, "This is it." he stopped in a large courtyard in front of a big house, "and my best friend lived two houses down with her family." he pointed in the direction of Arnya's family home.

Sasuke had told her all about herself. Without using names, he just referred to her as his best friend. He told her how she was always kind, and caring, highly protective of her younger sister, and proud.

They walked away from the houses towards a clearing in a wooded area. The area was scattered with kunai impaled targets.

"Me and the girl used to watch my big brother train here all the time."

"It's weird." Arnya muttered, "I feel like I've been here before."

Sasuke stared at her, he could see it. She close to a small break through.

"Everyone thinks that my first kiss was when Naruto bumped into me." he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "But it was actually right here. I was seven, she was nine. It was the night everything went to hell."

_Arnya stood, "Sasuke I have to go. I promised Kallia I'd play with her today. I've been putting off spending time with her too much since entering the academy."_

"_Okay. I'm going to stay and train for a little while longer." The boy was breathing heavily a kunai held in each hand. _

"_Are you sure? Your mom will kill you if you're too late."_

"_I have to keep training, if I'm going to keep up with Big Brother."_

"_For the love of god kid, your obsession with beating Itachi is making me work just as hard to make sure I stay ahead of you."_

"_Who said you were ahead of me?"_

_Arnya raised an eyebrow and smiled, "You keep telling yourself that. I have to go." she leaned down to kiss Sasuke's forehead at the same time he moved to peck her cheek._

_Their lips met for a brief second. They both pulled away blushing. "Well I'll see you tomorrow Sasuke."_

Arnya was staring around the clearing trying to figure out when she could have possibly been here before. Sasuke approached her, one hand rested on her hip the other moved and gently touched her chin. Her angled her face towards his and leaned down.

She set her hand on the side of his face and leaned up to meet him.

Their lips pressed together, their eyes locked until she let hers drift closed. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her toes and deepened the kiss. Sasuke's arms wrapped around her waist and he held her close to him.

In that moment he felt as if she had never been gone. Five lonely years melted away as he held her tightly in his arms.

**X~X**

Deidara's blue eyes stared directly into her gray ones. They smouldered gently, he could see her honesty, the softness behind her gaze. Once again the little piece of art was sitting in front of him. Here for him, only for him.

He wanted to reach towards her. To touch her, to hold her. But he couldn't get his arms to work. Instead he sat on his bed in front of her, frozen.

Arnya stood, she gently brushed Deidara's blonde bangs with the tips of her fingers, "I'll let that sink in, and you are forgiven."

She walked from the room leaving Deidara dumbfounded.


	19. You Passed

_The sword slashed through the air. A little girl's painful dying scream filled Arnya's ears. _

"_KALLIA!" She looked from the bleeding girl to her attacker. She looked into the man's eyes. Except she realized it wasn't a man. It was a boy, maybe thirteen years old. His eyes burned into her. Deep crimson with a black blade like pattern instead of a pupil._

"Arnya." she opened her eyes and saw once again Deidara hovering over her.

"There was something new." she said shooting up into a sitting position.

"What was it yeah?"

Arnya reached over and grabbed a piece of paper a red pen and a black pen and quickly drew what she had seen.

Deidara stared down at the paper. He recognized it instantly. This was Itachi's Mangekyo, "I have to do something yeah." he reached for the paper. He fully intended to go and beat the hell out of Itachi until he explained.

"No, Deidara." Arnya whispered grabbing his hand, "Just stay with me please."

He looked back at her. She looked smaller and more fragile than he'd yet seen her. He could see the pleading look in her eye. As much as he wanted to punch that Uchiha bastard in the face, she needed him to stay here and he would.

He sat beside her on the bed and smiled at her. "I'll stay yeah."

She smiled back. She moved towards him. He prepared himself just to hold her when she put her head on his shoulder. He was instead taken by surprise when she crashed her lips into his. His eyes widened and locked onto hers. She reached up and brushed his bangs from his face. His hair was down and hung loosely around his shoulders.

He lost himself in the sensation of her lips on his. The feel of her hand running through his hair. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her pulling her as close to himself as possible. His hand ran up her back and found her dark curls. His fingers entangled into them and pushed her face more into his deepening the kiss.

She moaned gently into his surprisingly soft lips. He couldn't resist taking the opportunity to dart his tongue into her mouth. He expected a struggle for dominance but she put up no fight and let Deidara have control. Their tongues danced sensually and her hands left his hair.

She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down so that he was hovering over top of her. Her hands ran down his bare chest towards the boxers he was wearing. She began tugging at the hem of the only piece of clothing he was wearing when he broke the kiss gasping for air.

He looked down into her eyes. He could see the desire, anticipation and lust, however her fragile vulnerability was still there.

He grabbed her wrists, "Stop."

"What? Why?"

"I… you're…" Deidara struggled to find the words he wanted to say. It was made all the more difficult fighting his arousion as his eyes scanned her body. A black tank top and blue panties were all she was wearing. He had already known he physically wanted her, almost desperately. He had been with many women in the past but none of them enthralled him the way she did. And were it any other woman he had seen this vulnerability in he would have felt nothing. He'd have banged her and been done with it, but with thoughts of Arnya came true feeling. Something he hadn't known could exist in him, the caring and love he felt looking down at her in this moment outweighed his physical need.

"You don't want to…"

"Oh, I do yeah. I really do. But you're still shaken up, and vulnerable yeah. I can't take advantage of you like that yeah."

Arnya stared up at him in shock. That was the very last thing she expected Deidara to say.

"I'll stay with you, but I won't have sex with you yeah. Not yet." He kissed her forehead and rolled over so that he was laying beside her.

Arnya lay there unblinkingly until she finally remembered how to speak, "Thank you." she whispered. Her and Deidara's eyes locked for a few moments before he pulled her into his arms. She laid her head on his chest. Her hand resting by the stitched up mouth. She slowly drifted off to sleep, feeling safe and warm in his embrace.

Itachi and Kisame had heard Arnya screaming in her sleep, and were standing outside her room. They heard what Deidara said. Itachi smiled.

"What are you so happy about?" Kisame asked quietly

"Deidara passed."

**X~X**

Arnya awoke the next morning feeling unusually wonderful. Not wanting to open her eyes yet she hugged her pillow tighter. Her eyes flew open when she realized that pillow let out a gasp of air. It was strangely hard for a pillow too. She looked up and saw Deidara looking down at her. It took her a moment to remember why she was sleeping on Deidara.

She smiled up at him, and he grinned back. "For future reference if you want me to wake up in the morning you don't have to force the air out of my lungs yeah."

"Sorry." she said as she sat up stretching.

Deidara smirked to himself. The girl who didn't apologize just said sorry to him.

She got up and collected clothes to wear for the day.

Deidara stood, "I'm going to go get dressed yeah." he walked up to her and kissed her sweetly before leaving the room.

Deidara saw Itachi leaving his room and heading to the kitchen. Deidara decided to take this opportunity.

"Hey Uchiha!"

Itachi turned around and Deidara's fist collided with his face. He pushed Itachi back into his bedroom, "What the fuck did you do to her yeah?"

"So it worked?"

"What worked yeah?"

"I loosened the jutsu I put on her the night I killed her family and spared her life."

"Killed her family yeah? Arnya's an Uchiha?"

"Yes she is, she was my little brother's best friend, I knew her very well."

"Why did you leave her alive?"

"It's a long story. Basically she managed to awaken the last of the emotion I still held in myself the night I slaughtered my clan. I couldn't kill her."

"So you sealed her memories and tried to protect her yeah?"

"Yes. That's also why I've been kind of hovering over her. I didn't trust you and tried to keep you two apart."

"Past tense yeah?"

"Part of this was testing you. I expected you to come and try and take me down once her memories became more vivid. What I didn't expect was what you did last night," Itachi said simply, "You passed. I'll leave you to your own devices. But if she gets hurt I will kill you."

"How do you know what happened last night yeah?" Deidara wasn't sure if he was angry or not.

"Kisame and I heard Arnya screaming. We went to make sure she was alright and could hear you talking."

"So you didn't completely removed the jutsu because it would be too much for her yeah. Nine years of memories can't be taken on at once yeah."

"Exactly, Kisame knew it was my handwriting on the note. He cornered me and now knows all this as well. He's willing to help her once things start coming back."

"I'll help her yeah. I'll do whatever she needs me to yeah."

Itachi smiled, "Like I said, you passed." with that Itachi headed to the door, "Deidara, put some pants on please."

**X~X**

Arnya and Deidara sat together during breakfast. Neither being overly touchy feely they were casual as they ate. Kisame kept smirking at Deidara and Itachi continually glanced towards Arnya waiting for her to figure out what she had seen was his sharingan.

Pain's voice boomed from the living room, "Get in here!"

The Akatsuki members piled into the living room. Arnya saw Konan smile kindly at her when the blue haired woman noticed Deidara slipping his hand into Arnya's. She couldn't help but smile back, this was the first time she'd ever seen the woman look anything but sad.

Once everyone was in the room Pain spoke. "Deidara, Tobi and Arnya you have a mission. I want you to go after the Sanbi."

All three nodded their understanding. Deidara sighed at the idea of going on a long distance trip with Tobi. At least Arnya would make the entire thing tolerable for him.

"Itachi and Kisame I've got nothing for you now, ill be in touch when I know what I want you to do."

Pain and Konan took their leave. Arnya turned to her team-mates. "The Sanbi is the giant turtle right?"

"I think so yeah."

"The last known Jinchuuriki was the third Mizukage of the Hidden Mist. Should we start there?"

"Don't bother." Kisame told her, "The third is long since dead, the beast was extracted and broke free. It's whereabouts are currently unknown."

"That's right you're from Blood Mist Village aren't you." Arnya turned her attention to the blue man, "well it's a large water creature, which narrows the search down to large bodies of fresh water."

"Doesn't help much yeah."

"Well I think we can safely say it'll be somewhere isolated. Far from human contact or there would be reported sightings."

"Her reasoning is sound," Itachi commented, "Start in denser populated areas and work your way around."

Tobi hadn't joined the conversation as he was too busy doodling on a scrap of paper.

Deidara sighed seeing his strange masked team-mate, "It's going to be a long trip yeah."


	20. True Friendship

Deidara gritted his teeth. Arnya had gone to find fire wood and left him alone with Tobi who was currently running circles around the clearing they had decided to camp in. Deidara's patience was running thinner everyday that he was out here with Tobi. Three weeks of travelling and neither hide nor hair of the Sanbi was seen. Deidara was about to snap and tell Tobi to sit the fuck down when Arnya returned.

She had an armful of wood, that she placed in a circle of rocks Deidara had arranged. She did a few quick hand signs and spit a small fire ball at the pile igniting it.

"Why bother with wood when you can make a fire like that yeah?"

"So it stays lit. This way I don't have to make a fireball every ten minutes."

"Makes sense yeah." He reached towards her and pulled her into him. She leaned comfortably into his chest her head resting on his shoulder.

"Tobi thinks Senpai and Arnya looked cute."

Deidara tried to scowl up at Tobi but failed. Instead he smiled at Arnya and tightened his arms around her.

"Why did you leave me alone with him yeah?" he muttered in her ear.

She smirked evilly, "Because I didn't want to be left with him."

"We could have sent him yeah."

"And trust him to come back with more than a twig?" she raised her eyebrows.

After an other few hours Tobi seemed to tire himself out and collapsed on the ground snoring.

Deidara fell asleep holding Arnya like a teddy bear. Not feeling very tired she took watch and wiggled out of Deidara's hold to perch herself on a tree branch.

She sat alone reading for an hour when she sensed someone moving below her. She looked down and saw the last people she needed to come in contact with at the moment.

She leapt from her tree and landed silently beside Deidara.

"Deidara." she whispered urgently shaking his shoulder.

"What's going on yeah." Deidara mumbled sleepily.

"A squad of Konoha ninja are in the area."

"Shit, which ones yeah."

"Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and Kakashi Hatake."

Deidara shot up, a sly smile grew on his face, "The Copy-Ninja yeah."

"Kiba has an accelerated sense of smell. There's a chance they may already know we're here."

"Should we prepare for an attack yeah?"

"Maybe not a full scale attack but we should be ready for Akamaru to come sniffing at us."

"Akamaru yeah?"

"Kiba's ninja dog. And if they don't send Akamaru, Hinata may just scope us out with her Byakugan."

"So they're more than likely to find us yeah."

"All of them are excellent for a scoping mission, Kiba's got his smell, Hinata has Byakugan and Shino has his bugs." Arnya sighed, "Any way I look at this we may have to try to take Kakashi down. He's the one we've got to worry most about."

"Only Kakashi yeah?"

"If Kakashi is taken out the others will fall back. Kiba may the only one hot headed enough to keep trying."

"We should at least set traps and get ready for them to find us yeah."

"Exactly, should we wake Tobi?" Arnya glanced at the snoring figure "I've never seen him fight I have no clue what powers he has."

"Not really anything I've ever seen yeah. For the most part he's only good for setting my mines and raising my blood pressure yeah."

"Okay good. You start making bombs, I'll wake the dumbass and get him to set shit up while I come up with a proper strategy."

Deidara got to work moulding his clay, setting small birds and spiders on the ground in front of him.

Arnya approached her masked team-mate. "Tobi" She hissed, "Tobi get your ass up we have trouble."

Tobi mumbled something unintelligible. Arnya's eyes darkened, "Fire style phoenix flower jutsu."

Deidara had to fight not to laugh when he saw Tobi shoot upright the sleeve of his cloak on fire.

Arnya put the flames out and glared at Tobi, "We have an issue."

'What kind of issue?"

"The Konoha kind, we need you to start setting Deidara's bombs around as traps if any get near us."

Tobi stood up groggily collected the bombs and took off setting them in trees and in the ground around their clearing.

Deidara sat silently watching Arnya think. Her eyes scanned the area, then she noticed something.

"Shit. TOBI! Come back!" she called out.

"What's wrong yeah?"

"They're already watching us."

"How do you know?"

"That bug right there." she pointed to a beetle crawling on the tree by him, "It's one of Shino's…" She trailed off and looked around, "HINATA! I know you can see me, lets stop this game of hide and seek and be adults about the situation."

A slight girl, with long blue black hair, and Byakugan white eyes dropped from the trees landing gracefully in front of the Akatsuki members.

"Arnya." she said, her eyes scanned sadly over the slashed through Konoha forehead protector Arnya was wearing.

"Wow Hinata, you went and got all grown up." Arnya said politely regarding the young Hyuuga heiress.

"S-so did you." Hinata replied, she sounded like she was forcing back tears. Her voice was small and quiet. She held her hands in front of her face nervously twirling her fingers.

"You're still a bit anxious though. I hope your continued lack of confidence doesn't mean you wont be able to fight to your full potential," Arnya said, "I wouldn't want this to be too easy."

"She's not the same child." Arnya turned to see a tall boy, shaggy brown hair, black eyes, with distinctive red fang marks on his cheeks. A giant white dog stood dutifully beside him.

"Kiba, Akamaru. Wow you got huge." Arnya said looking at the dog, "When I left Konoha he was riding around on your head."

"We've all grown up Arnya, Hinata is more powerful now than you've ever seen her."

"What a nice little reunion this is. Where's Shino?"

"Over here." A hooded figure with a high collared coat walked into the clearing from the other side. His face was hidden behind the collar, and his eyes unseen behind a pair of dark mirrored goggles.

"Team Kurenai. This is almost more touching than seeing Team Kakashi again." Arnya mocked her former friends with a deadly smirk on her face. Deidara watched her, barely keeping the smirk off his own face. He loved her attitude.

"Are you still chasing Sasuke like stupid lost puppies?" Arnya asked her eyes regarding each one of them.

"Sasuke's not the only one we want to bring home." Kakashi stepped into the clearing from behind. Effectively boxing Arnya and Deidara in.

"See now I know you're all idiots. At least you have a chance of getting Sasuke back if, and that's a big if, he manages to get his revenge on his brother, he may return to Konoha. But if you still think I'm going to go back you're dumber than you look." Arnya's smirk grew, "And that's saying something Kakashi-Sensei."

"Arnya, you're rudeness is unnecessary, we just want to make sure you're safe." Hinata said.

"Exactly, that generally means not in the company of psychotic criminals." Kakashi glared at Deidara.

"She's safe with me yeah." Deidara reached over and linked his fingers with Arnya's.

Team Kurenai plus Kakashi froze in shock, as Arnya stepped closer to Deidara allowing him to wrap an arm around her waist.

"If it's her safety you're concerned about I've got her covered yeah." Deidara said, "Not that she really needs someone to protect her yeah."

"I'm not going back to Konoha, and right now you have two options. Leave me be, or fight and most likely die." Arnya said in all seriousness. She locked eyes with everyone of Konoha ninja standing around her, well she assumed Shino was looking her in the eye.

"Arnya please," Kiba stepped forward, "Think about what you're deciding here. And be honest with yourself, is this really what you want?"

Arnya turned towards him. "Kiba I honestly don't want to kill you, but I will if you don't fuck off."

Akamaru barked defensively when Arnya threatened his master.

When no one replied Arnya spoke again, "I've made my choice. Now you make yours, leave now or fight. And be prepared to fight to kill, because I won't leave you alive if I win."

Kakashi sighed, "It's about time the four of you caught up."

"What?" Arnya and Deidara turned in unison to see Naruto, Sakura and two people Arnya didn't recognize walk up behind Kakashi.

One of the new members was a boy, skinny, pale, short dark hair and pure black eyes. The other a man, tall, brown hair, dark eyes.

"Is this kid the Sasuke replacement?" Arnya asked cocking an eyebrow at the boy.

"My name is Sai. I think I can assume you're the Arnya that Naruto and Sakura told me about."

"Well you assume correctly Sai. And whose the Jounin?"

"Captain Yamato." The man said uncertainly looking from Arnya to Kakashi, "This is the girl Genma said he used to teach, Kakashi-Senpai?"

"Kakashi-Senpai? you must be ANBU, no wonder I didn't recognize you."

"Speaking of Senpai where the fuck is Tobi yeah?" Deidara thought looking around for a sign of his strange masked companion.

"Now do I have to redo my speech or do you get the idea."

"We heard you." Naruto said his blue eyes on the ground. Neither he nor Sakura could bring themselves to look at her. They both felt guilt about the way they had treated her after Sasuke had left.

"So what do you choose?"

"I wont give up on you Arnya." Naruto finally snapped his head up and looked directly into her eyes, "I said I would bring you and Sasuke back and I will. Even if it kills me."

"I always admired your spirit Naruto, but you really are a moron." Naruto saw genuine regret in her eyes before her deep gray turned into deadly crimson. She activated her Sharingan, pulled Deidara's arm from her waist and crouched into a fighting position.

Deidara was reaching for his clay pouch when a huge explosion went off.

The ground shattered underneath everyone in the clearing. Arnya heard Tobi yell out, "I'm sorry Senpai Tobi set off a mine he had just set!"

The ground opened up and swallowed the groups. During the fall Deidara managed to throw a bird into the air, it grew and caught him on it's back. The blonde dived downward to try and catch Arnya but she was lost in the darkness.

"Arnya!" Deidara began obsessively circling the newly made crater in the ground searching for her.

**X~X**

Arnya managed to turn herself around mid fall and landed on her feet at the bottom of the hole. As her foot connected with the ground her ankle bent to the side. She called out in pain and frustration as she felt her ankle twist. She gripped at the dirt wall of the giant crevice and looked up. She was more than ten feet underground. Her sharingan eyes could clearly see a large white bird with a cloaked blonde rider circling. Deidara was looking for her.

"Deidara!" she called out, he didn't seem to hear her. She sighed and resolved to just trying to find a way out of this.

**X~X**

Deidara could faintly hear someone calling his name. he looked down and once again yelled out "Arnya!"

He thought he may have seen a flash of red clouds in the dark hole and was about to investigate when Tobi called to him.

"Senpai watch out!"

Deidara turned in time to see what looked like a painted bird soaring towards him. On this bird's back was the pale dark haired boy Sai, and the pink-haired kunoichi. If he remembered correctly Arnya had said her name was Sakura.

Sakura was scanning the ground with as much fear and worry as Deidara had been, "Naruto! Kakashi!"

Sai was poised for attack as he and Deidara stared each other down. Then Deidara got a crazy idea.

"Wait. Instead of killing each other right now, we help each other find who we're looking for and then destroy one another yeah."

Sakura looked up in surprise. She looked Deidara in the eye and was more than taken aback to see the sincerity in them. He was truly worried about Arnya.

Sai looked uncertain, but Sakura knew this was the best course of action, "Deal, we help each other than our group gets to walk away and you don't lay a hand on Naruto."

"Fine yeah. The Kyuubi isn't mine or Arnya's target anyways yeah."

**X~X**

Kakashi, Yamato and Naruto we're dizzily trying to adjust to the sudden darkness around them.

"SAKURA-CHAN! SAI!" Naruto suddenly screamed out feeling at the wall searching for his friends. Kakashi and Yamato were already trying to find a way out and decided to allow the boy to scream himself hoarse. "KIBA, SHINO, HINATA!"

**X~X**

Hinata could hear Naruto calling to her. She activated her Byakugan and began scanning the area. She could see Kiba, Akamaru and Shino getting close to Naruto, Kakashi and Yamato. In the sky two white birds were flying searching for all those who had fallen. Hinata's attention was caught by the sight of Arnya gripping the dirt wall limping horribly.

Hinata's good natured soul forced her to go check on her former friend. Even if not to help Arnya it had to be done as a favour to Hinata's dearly departed cousin Sukai. He would have wanted to make sure Arnya was safe.

Arnya could sense Hinata approaching and prepared for attack, she let go of the wall and faltered on her sore ankle. She began to fall over but was caught in the Hyuuga's arms.

"A-are you alright Arnya?"

"I'll survive." she said simply, unwilling to accept that Hinata was helping her.

"What do I have to say to bring you home?"

"Konoha isn't my home anymore Hinata." Arnya sighed. She hated the sadness that overtook Hinata's gentle eyes. She had always supported and was close to Hinata. Her and Sukai had been very close, and by extension Team Genma had become very tightly knit with Team Kurenai.

"Why not. We all care about you there."

"Hinata, even if I wanted to I couldn't." Arnya pulled herself up and gripped the wall for support, "I've done too much and been gone too long."

"That doesn't matter, we miss you Arnya, we want you back." Byakugan locked onto Sharingan, "Jade hates not having you around. She lost her two best friends so abruptly. It tore her apart to know you left so soon after Sukai died."

"Hinata, you love Naruto right?"

"Wh-what does that have to do with anything?" Hinata seemed alarmed.

"What if he were to leave the village, abandon you, your friends and everything you stood for?"

"I-I Naruto-kun wouldn't do that."

"No but the person I loved did, and I ran from the pain I felt. I left it all back in Konoha."

"But that doesn't solve anything."

"About two or three months ago I would have agreed with you. But what if after Naruto left, and you ran, you managed to stumble across someone, that means even more to you than he did?"

"I- the blonde guy?"

"I'm not leaving the Akatsuki if it mean leaving him. Do you understand Hinata?"

Hinata stood in silence for a moment. But the realization dawned on her, Arnya was happy where she was, and she was safe, and that was all Hinata really wanted to be sure of. "I understand Arnya. But I need you to promise me two things."

"What?"

"If ever you get out of the Akatsuki. Please come back to the village. And do what you can to sabotage their plans to hurt Naruto-kun."

Arnya smiled at Hinata, their eyes locked Arnya spoke with pure sincerity, "I Promise."

**X~X**

Hinata made sure Arnya was able to walk properly and met up with the others still stuck in the hole.

"Hinata, thank god. When you didn't answer I started getting really scared." Naruto smiled at her.

Hinata's face flushed a deep red and she sputtered out an apology.

"Anyway Sai and Sakura are up there on the bird so we just need to get out of here and find Arnya. We knock her out if we have to and drag her back to Konoha."

"No." Hinata said simply.

"What are you saying Hinata?"

"Just trust me Naruto-kun. She'll return to us when she's ready."

The honesty and sureness in Hinata's eyes disarmed him and he simply nodded.

**X~X**

Deidara found the Konoha group first. The Copy-Ninja was trying to climb the wall.

"Hey, I found your guys yeah!" he called to the pair on the other bird. He pointed to the area.

"Thank you." Sakura called back to him as Sai began painting something on a scroll.

"Ninja Art, super beast scroll." the long snake like creature on the page came alive and slithered downward. Sakura and Sai grabbed a hold of one end and lowered it like a rope to their comrades.

Once they were all out of the hole Sai looked around. "I see Arnya," he called to Deidara. Her pointed to where a dark haired figure could be seen struggling trying to climb the rock wall.

"Thank you yeah." Deidara turned his back on the group and dove towards Arnya. She was about midway up the wall when he levelled himself to her, "Arnya."

She turned her head and flashed him a smile. He reached his hand out, she took it and he pulled her onto the bird.

Sai and Sakura landed at the same time that Deidara and Arnya did. The groups looked at each other, "A deals a deal. You let us walk away and don't harm Naruto."

Deidara nodded, and Arnya looked up at him in surprise. She was glad he had made that deal, it saved her the trouble of having to make something up to stop them all from fighting.

Hinata and Arnya looked at each other for a moment. The women shared a silent moment, both nodded and the Konoha group left.

Tobi ran up to where his team-mates were standing, 'Why are we letting them leave?"

"You want to take on two full teams of highly skilled Konoha ninja, be my guest Tobi. I choose life."


	21. Startings Of A Masterplan

It was about another hour before Naruto came out of his Hinata induced daze. Which she secretly relished the victory of having put him under.

"Why did we leave her back there?" Naruto exclaimed startling the silently moving group, "She's with dangerous psychotic criminals we need to get her Dattebayo!" _(Sorry I just REALLY wanted to use Dattebayo at least once in here.)_

"Naruto-kun please trust me. She may not be with us now but she will come home eventually." Hinata reassured in a small voice.

"Hinata, I wish I had that confidence. But how can we be sure, what if one of them hurts her?"

"The man she was with won't harm her."

"How can you be so sure?" Kiba asked. He looked confused. Hinata was never this sure of anything.

"I'm with Hinata here." Sakura said, "I think she'll be okay. And maybe someday when she's ready to, she'll come home."

Everyone just stared at the two girls. They couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"Why?" Naruto yelled, "what the hell makes you two so sure?"

"You didn't see him when she was in that hole. He was genuinely scared for her. He cares that much is obvious." Sakura said calmly

"I talked to her. She gave me a situation. The one I loves leaves and abandons me. I run from the pain, and try and hide."

"How the hell is running supposed to help?" Naruto interrupted

"And while running I find someone that I love even more than the one that left me. She's happy and safe. That's enough for me." Hinata spoke with unusual self assured-ness. She was more than confident in what she was saying, "and she promised me that when she leaves the Akatsuki she'll come home. She also promised that she'd do everything within her power to keep you safe from the inside Naruto-kun."

Naruto stood speechlessly staring at Hinata. If this was true and Arnya was safe and well, there wasn't anything he could do to bring her to Konoha until she was ready, "I wonder if it's the same with Sasuke. Maybe we just need to wait for him to be ready for us."

**X~X**

Arnya managed to get her hands on a map of the area they were in. Located in a remote corner was a large lake that people had reportedly seen strange mists coming from. As well a mass chakra surges felt by passing Shinobi.

She tried to remain focused on her mission but distractions kept over taking her mind, Deidara was one big distraction to her, refraining from strangling Tobi was another. But her mind continued to go back to what she had promised Hinata.

"Sabotage their plans to hurt Naruto-kun."

Arnya intended to keep her promise. Arnya never promised anything unless it was worth keeping. And she owed Hinata a lot.

The first step would be finding out what Itachi had in mind for catching Naruto. There was a danger of him finding out what she was up to. If any other members found out she was working against them in any way she'd be dead.

Arnya sighed inwardly, she was taking a lot on. The Akatsuki had become her home, cheating them felt wrong in a way. But she was finally being honest with herself. She was attached to Konoha and it's people, and if she could protect someone she cared about, she would do it. No matter the cost. She sighed inwardly, you know you've got a fucked up life when the person that triggers your emotions and makes you come to terms with your feelings is a semi-psychotic terrorist bomber that you met in an organization comprised of some of the worlds most dangerous and powerful S-Class serial killers.

Which was exactly why she had no intention of telling Deidara what she had promised. She refused to bring anyone else into the danger she was about to enter.

The Akatsuki trio walked on in silence. Arnya's mind in silent turmoil. When suddenly Tobi called out excitedly.

"They have Dangos! Let's take a break, we've been walking for ever and I'm exhausted!" he was doing a little dance while speaking before he tore off in the direction of the sweet shop they were passing.

"Like hell you are yeah." Deidara sighed.

"We're going to let him eat sugar? I'm pretty sure the world will just implode if he gets anymore hyperactive."

"That'd be quite a bang yeah." Deidara smirked as Arnya rolled her eyes and smiled.

Arnya sat across from Tobi leaving Deidara to sit beside him. "You're such a carefree guy Tobi, yeah. shouldn't you be a little more serious?"

"But Senpai we don't know where the bijuu we want is. So we might as well just take it easy." Tobi said, "Which one are we after again?"

Arnya sighed, "The Sanbi Tobi, the three-tails."

"Oh, lets see. Ichibi, Nibi, and I'm Tobi duh."

Arnya's eyebrows raised at the strange statement. Deidara was giving Tobi a look of pure death, but was unable to act on his desire to leave a bomb on Tobi, when the waitress brought their dango over.

Both Arnya and Deidara froze watching Tobi intently as he began to lift his mask off his face. Both sighed in defeat when Tobi turned to the side to eat his food. Deidara shook his head and Arnya just shrugged at him and began eating.

Tobi readjusted his mask and turned back towards them, "Oh Senpai look." he pointed to a moulded clay pig sitting on the cash counter, "That looks just like your art work doesn't it?"

Deidara looked at it and then up at Tobi, he swallowed his dango and was about to say something when Tobi continued, "Could it be that Senpai's art is a cheap rip off." he said playfully.

Arnya saw Deidara's eyes darken dangerously, "You…"

"Tobi run."

"Why?"

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU YEAH!"

Tobi finally got the message and tore out of the shop screaming and Deidara starting launching bombs at him.

Arnya sighed and let the two of them run, finishing off hers and Deidara's abandoned dango.

**X~X**

Deidara spent the next few days of travelling ignoring Tobi's existence. Tobi continued to try and make Deidara's head explode in frustration. Arnya gave up stopping them from killing each other and gave them both a wide berth when Deidara got that homicidal maniac look in his eye.

Tobi began doing stupid things to try and get onto Deidara's good side. Today the masked man took to running ahead of Deidara and Arnya hiding behind trees and making stupid comments.

Tobi put a finger up to where his lips would be under the mask and attempted a sexy girly voice, "I'm a school girl in love with her Senpai."

Arnya let out a strangled cough trying to hide her laughter as Deidara's hand twitched towards his clay pouch.

"Come on Senpai lets just be friends and look for the Sanbi together."

Deidara finally snapped, "Get Lost yeah!" he continued walking, Arnya standing a little back from him prepared to dive behind a tree to avoid the oncoming boom.

"but Senpai…" Tobi started,

Deidara cut him off, "I said get lost yeah." he turned around and began heading down the opposite fork of the road they were travelling. As he walked by Arnya his hand slipped into her and pulling her in the direction her was walking.

"Senpai if you keep talking like that I may actually leave."

"Good yeah." Deidara muttered under his breath.

Tobi seemed to have gotten the message and walked in the other direction. Deidara and Arnya had been walking for about twenty minutes when she froze, "That was really stupid of us."

"Why?"

"The lake is in the direction Tobi is headed."

"Fucking hell yeah."

**X~X**

Madara Uchiha sighed in relief as the psycho blonde and his bitchy girl walked in the other direction. He finally had an opportunity to deal with the shit going on around him.


	22. Madara's Annoyance, Deidara's Love

Madara Uchiha watched as his 'team-mates' walked away. His focus on the girl. Arnya Uchiha. Itachi's best kept secret. That boy had some explaining to do.

He teleported to the Akatsuki base directly into Itachi's room. The younger Uchiha glanced up and stiffened momentarily, "Madara."

"Itachi, I have an issue."

"What sort of issue?"

"There's this certain girl, that supposedly died nine years ago, by your hand, but recently it's come to my attention that she is alive and well."

Itachi remained silent. His heart beat picked up several paces. He tried to hide his panic not wanting to give Madara anything to feed off.

The ancient Uchiha continued, "And this girl, she's managed to completely enthral one of my best members. Granted every day I get closer to wanting to shove one of his bombs down his throat, but still he is one of the strongest Akatsuki, and this girl has managed to get her claws into him."

"Why is that a bad thing?" Itachi asked slowly.

"Well just for example. The other night we ran into several Konoha ninja, a bomb went off people fell into a hole. And Deidara instead of blowing them to hell, makes a deal with them. They help each other find their friends. Or in his case that little bitch, and everyone walks away alive. And the Kyuubi walks with them untouched."

Itachi fought to keep the small smile off his face. No one in the village was hurt, and Naruto Uzumaki remained safe, his prolonging and stalling his plans to capture the boy would that much more aided if Deidara and Arnya continued on like this.

"Further more," Madara growled, "I believe she may have made some sort of deal with one of the Konoha ninja. There was something in the way she and the Hyuuga girl looked at each other before they left. You know of course I can't let this go too far. If this girl becomes any more of a nuisance to me I will destroy her."

Itachi's entire body stiffened. A low growl tore from his throat. After everything he had done to protect her, he would not allow this mad-man to touch her.

"That sounded rather threatening Itachi. Are you challenging me?" Madara moved closer to the younger Uchiha, "That doesn't seem very wise. Considering it's your fault this girl is such a thorn in my side. Why is she alive Itachi?"

Itachi didn't answer he stared straight ahead at a wall.

"I thought only Sasuke was to be spared."

Itachi sighed, "I killed her parents and her sister. I was about to kill her, she didn't care. Her only concern was trying to protect her little sister, I knew I couldn't take her life the moment she apologized to the dying child for not being able to protect her."

"Oh so she reminded you of yourself."

"Yes."

"Well Itachi, I have no intention of killing her yet. But you better hope she doesn't become anymore of an annoyance to me."

Madara teleported away leaving Itachi to sit in terrified silence.

"I have to remove the jutsu the moment I next see her." He thought desperately, "We no longer have the luxury of easing her into this. She needs to know now, it may be the only thing that can save her."

**X~X**

"We seriously went the wrong way yeah?"

Arnya was studying the map, "Yeah, we're going in the exact opposite direction of the lake."

"And we left Tobi to be the one to get there first yeah?"

"Yes, we did…"

Deidara sighed and smacked his forehead to the heel of his palm (_Face palm_).

"Should we go after him?" Arnya looked up from the map.

Deidara took a moment to think about it, "Not right away yeah. I still just want to blow him up so…"

"Take a moment to calm rage?"

"Exactly yeah."

"That's probably for the best. I'm telling you one day that little twerp is going to snap and kill us all."

"What a pleasant thought yeah." Deidara said sarcastically coming over to sit beside her.

"It's always the ones you least suspected."

"Like you yeah. Small, harmless looking, then suddenly you're on fire yeah."

Arnya grinned evilly, "Exactly." Then she sighed and stretched out leaning against a tree, "So now what?"

Deidara looked over at her. He suddenly realized that this was the first time they had been completely alone since that night. His heart rate picked up a little bit as he reached slowly towards her. His hand brushed strands of hair from her face. And she smiled at the contact. He reached to his own face and took off the scope on his left eye. Wanting to see her properly.

Arnya turned towards him and pressed her lips to Deidara's. He responded immediately by closing his eyes and wrapping his arms tightly around her. His fingers entangling into her dark curls. Her arms slipped around his neck. One hand reached up and undid the ribbon of his forehead protector. His bangs fell more loosely into their faces and the headband fell to the ground.

Next to go was the ribbon holding his hair up. She untwisted it and a mass of blonde fell over her hands. She gripped onto the locks pushing him closer to her.

He licked along her bottom lip, begging for entrance to her mouth. She smirked into the kiss and decided to tease him for a moment. He felt the tug of her lips and took matters into his own hands, using his tongue to part her lips and slip into her.

There was a struggle for dominance that Arnya eventually surrendered and allowed Deidara to have control. He caressed her tongue with his own all the while pulling her closer to him so that their chests were pressed together and they could feel each other's heartbeats.

Arnya fingers left the blonde locks and began unsnapping his cloak. He followed suit and his nimble fingers made short work of her overcoat that was quickly tossed aside.

In his momentary distraction Arnya managed to seize control of his mouth. She sucked on his tongue causing him to groan slightly into her. He didn't bother fighting back, what she was doing felt too good for him to care about who had dominance. He slid his hands slowly up her arms, across her shoulders to the back of her neck. Where he undid the ties of her shirt.

Deidara tugged at the leather and body mesh and she released his tongue as she raised her arms and allowed him to remove the garment. He pressed his lips to her neck and sucked at the sensitive skin. Arnya's hand slid down his well built body until she found the hem of his shirt, she struggled to get it off. The feel of his lips on her skin sent her mind into a haze making it impossible to think properly.

He smirked against her skin before sitting up and helping her pull his shirt off. Her fingertips glided across his muscled chest, pausing to slowly trace the stitched up mouth.

He shuddered at her slow and gentle touch. His own hands reaching around behind her. He unsnapped her bra and let it fall to the ground. His eyes marvelled at her chest for a moment, causing Arnya to blush lightly and instinctively try to cover herself with her arms.

Deidara softly grasped her wrists and leaned into towards her, "Why hide yeah? You're beautiful." he kissed her sweetly as he moved her arms. He began kneading her breasts in his hands, slowly massing them, the tongues of his hands licking small circles around her nipples.

Arnya groaned pleasurably, she could feel his growing arousion brush against her thigh. She moved her leg slightly so that her skin brushed against his covered manhood. Deidara let out a growl of blissful agony as she teased him. He nipped at her collarbone causing her to gasp. The mouths on his hands took her nipples into them slowly licking, biting and sucking at them. Arnya's back arched slightly her hands sliding down Deidara's chest towards his pants.

She pushed him onto his back making it easier for her to quickly pull his pants from him. Deidara began breathing heavily as she straddled his hips. She leaned down and kissed him, he wrapped his arms around her holding her as close to him as possible. She started grinding her hips against his, once again causing him to growl into her lips. His hands ran up her thighs, tongues darting out every so often.

He reached the hem of her skirt and began pulling at it. When he realized that getting the clothing off of her wouldn't work with her on top of him like this he grabbed her waist and flipped her onto her back.

Deidara pulled the skirt off of her leaving both of them with only one pesky piece of clothing each. He reached towards her dampened panties and smirked, "All wet for me yeah?"

"Well you're rock hard for me so things are evened out."

His smirked grew as he slowly slid her panties off her. He took a moment to admire her laying underneath him. "Worth the waiting yeah." he thought as he leaned down to press his lips to her neck.

Arnya moaned deeply as the tongue on Deidara's hand licked around her entrance. She wrapped her arms around him her hands trailing down his back, determined to remove his boxers.

She managed to rip them off of him. Deidara moved his hand from her womanhood, and positioned himself over her. "If I'm hurting you tell me and I'll stop yeah."

She nodded and Deidara slid slowly into her. She inhaled sharply and bit her lip. Tears moved to her eyes and she saw Deidara staring down at her in concern. He stayed as still as possible. The pain slowly began to decreased, "Deidara, I'm okay." and she kissed him.

He moved slowly in and out of her. He was careful, he was worried if he moved to quickly the woman underneath him would break, and he wouldn't be able to piece her back together.

Arnya moaned softly, her hips rocked in time with his, her hands running through his curtain of blonde hair. This was so different than when she had been attacked. There was no fear, no self loathing disgust, no tears. All she felt was unimaginable bliss, she relished the feel of his body pressed onto hers, his hair tickling her skin, his hands gently caressing her curves, his soft lips pressed passionately onto her own. She started to close her eyes but he placed his hands on either side of her face, "No, I want to see your eyes yeah." she opened them and smoky gray locked onto deep blue. She could see his love, passion and concern in them.

Deidara moved and started kissing down her neck, little red hickeys standing out on her pale skin.

"Deidara, harder please." she moaned in his ear. He complied picking up speed and force. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, getting as close to him as she could.

Deidara wrapped his arms around her and lifted the two of them into a sitting position. He gripped Arnya's hips and guided them as she bounced onto top of him. He grunted pleasurably as her nails racked down his back, he placed his head in the crook of her neck and shoulder.

He thrust upwards causing her to arch her back her arms tightened around him and her nails dug deeper into his skin. "Ah, Deidara." the sound of her moaning his name sent pleasurable shivers down his spine.

He could feel her nearing her limit as she tightened around him, and he knew he was reaching his as well. He laid her back down. He pulled out of her and slammed back in, his self control officially gone. Her widening eyes and the loud moan could only mean he hit the right spot. He continued to slam into her until he felt her orgasm rush around him pulling him over the edge with her.

"Deidara, ah." she called out biting down on her lip as she came.

"Arnya."

They rode out their orgasms and as Deidara pulled himself out of her he collapsed. His head resting in Arnya's chest. She wrapped her arms around him her hands entangling in his long hair.

"You really are a piece of artwork yeah." he whispered to her as he rolled onto his back beside her, "I love you." he added as he wrapped his Akatsuki cloak tightly around her. He was only mildly surprised that the words left his mouth. He'd never said or felt love like this before.

She laid against his chest. Safe and loved in his strong arms. "I love you too." she said holding tightly to him. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to stay in this world of caring and bliss for a few more moments before they had to get back to work.

**X~X**

Madara sighed angrily, teleporting to where Arnya and Deidara were had been a horrible decision. He decided to just go to the damn lake and see what he could find for now. He sighed again. This girl was more trouble than she was worth.


End file.
